THE  NEW 
UNIONISM 

By  ANDRE  TRIDON 


ACU  551 


1ARY  <> 


The 

NEW   UNIONISM 


BY 


ANDR6  TRIDON 


NEW  YORK 
B.  W.  HUEBSCH 


c 

i.  W.  HUEBSCH 


Copyright,  I9I3,  by 


PRINTED  IN  O.  3.  A. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  SOUTHERN  CALIFOH 


The  author  acknowledges  his  indebtedness  to 
Messrs.  Guy  Bowman,  London;  Christian  Cornelissen, 
Paris;  Justus  Ebert,  Brooklyn;  Joseph  Ettor,  New 
York ;  Arturo  Giovannitti,  New  York ;  Sydney  Green- 
bie,  New  York;  William  D.  Haywood,  Denver;  Prof. 
Felix  Le  Dantec,  University  of  Paris;  Emile  Pataud, 
Paris ;  Emile  Pouget,  Paris ;  Odon  Por,  Milan ;  George 
G.  Reeve,  Sydney,  Australia;  Vincent  St.  John,  Chi- 
cago; Dr.  E.  S.  Slosson,  New  York;  Walker  C. 
Smith,  Spokane;  William  E.  Trautman,  Pittsburg; 
B.  H.  Williams,  New  Castle,  and  Gaylord  Wilshire, 
London,  who  either  passed  upon  such  of  these  cHap- 
ters  as  appeared  in  the  New  York  Sun,  the  New 
York  Tribune,  The  Independent,  The  International, 
The  Industrial  Worker,  Solidarity,  etc.,  or  re- 
vised the  proof  sheets  or  gave  him  the  benefit  of  their 
own  observations  in  this  and  other  countries. 

New  York,  May  1,  1913. 


.TABLE  OF,  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

PAGE 

THE  NEW  UNIONISM:  A  DEFINITION. —  What  it  is  called 
in  the  various  countries. — New  Unionism  versus 
Anarchism;  Edouard  Berth,  F.  Van  Eeden,  W.  T. 
Trautman  on  anarchism. —  New  Unionism  versus 
trade  unionism;  B.  H.  Walker  on  craft  organiza- 
tion; W.  D.  Haywood  on  the  A.  F.  of  L.;  H.  Lagar- 
delle's  views;  rivalry  among  English  craft  unions; 
E.  V.  Debs  on  "  union  scabs " ;  the  Owens  machine 
versus  the  glassblowers  union. — The  unskilled  la- 
borer; hobo  labor  and  the  ballot. —  Socialism  hailed 
by  the  capitalist  press  as  a  conservative  force. — 
Definition  of  the  New  Unionism. —  Is  industrialism 
different  from  syndicalism? — The  great  change.  .  ..  1 

CHAPTER  II 

DIBECT  ACTION:  I.  THE  STEIKE. — Pouget  and  Vandervelde 
on  Direct  Action. —  The  anti-injunction  bill. —  The 
Dreyfus  case  and  the  Lawrence  case. —  What  a  strike 
means  to  the  New  Unionist. —  Folded  arms  strikes.— 
Sympathy  strikes. —  Irritation  strikes. —  Bumper 
strikes. —  How  long  should  a  strike  last?  —  Yvetot 
on  strike  funds. —  When  is  a  strike  successful? 
The  general  strike. —  Anti-militarism. —  The  Mal- 
thusian  strike.  ......  ;.  ,j  ,;  ;>J  ..  ,.  24 

CHAPTER  III 

DIBECT  ACTION  :  II.  SABOTAGE. —  The  meaning  of  the  word. 
—  Balzac's  account  of  the  Lyons  weaver  strike. —  The 
French  telegraphists'  "  mastic." —  The  Glasgow  dockers 
and  Ca  Canny  methods. —  The  Toulouse  congress  and 
Pouget's  motion. —  The  congress  appoints  a  committee 
on  sabotage. —  Active  sabotage ;  described  in  the  Bulle- 
tin of  the  Montpellier  Labor  Exchange;  the  French 
barbers'  "  badigeonnage  " ;  Haywood's  observations ; 
La  Voioo  du  Peuple  on  crippling  the  machinery  before 
a  walk  out. —  Sabotage  of  telegraph  lines. —  Open 


CONTENTS 

PAGB 

taouth  sabotage;    cooks,  subway  employees,  grocery, 
drugstore  and  bank  clerks  muckrake  their  employers. 

—  Obstructionism;   its  origin;   as  applied  by  Italian 
railroaders. — The   ethics   of   sabotage.    ..     .,    ;.,    M    ;.;    37 

CHAPTER  IV 

THE  NEW  UNIONISM  AND  THE  INTELLECTUALS. — Intellect- 
uals managing  the  world's  affairs. —  An  antiparlia- 
mentary  deputy. —  Radical  lawyers  and  their  fees. — 
The  French  International  tried  to  exclude  intellec- 
tuals.—  Sorel,  Edouard  Berth  and  Leone  on  intellec- 
tuals.—  The  art  of  to-morrow. —  Pouget  and  Pataud 
on  art  in  the  syndicalist  commonwealth. —  Radical 
art  and  its  vagaries.  ....  ...  .  ...  .  .  66 

CHAPTER  V 

THE  NEW  UNIONISM  IN  FBANCE:  REVOLUTIONARY  SYNDI- 
CALISM.— Syndicalist  tendencies  and  the  French  In- 
ternational.—  The  Commune. —  The  law  of  1884.— 
The  first  Labor  Exchange. —  Aristide  Briand,  a  parti- 
san of  the  general  strike. —  Fernand  Pelloutier  and 
the  anarchists. —  The  first  C.  G.  T.—  The  second  C.  G. 
T. —  Parties  within  the  C.  G.  T. —  Its  organization; 
the  two  Federations  and  their  work;  the  National 
Syndicates;  growing  spirit  of  industrialism. — The  re- 
sources of  the  C.  G.  T. — La  Voix  du  Peuple. —  The 
writers'  syndicate. —  Government  employees  join  the 
C.  G.  T. —  The  teachers'  fight  for  the  right  to  affiliate 
with  the  C.  G.  T. —  The  Soldier's  Penny  fund. —  The 
C.  G.  T.  and  the  socialist  party. —  The  leaders:  Pou- 
get, Griffuehles,  Yvetot,  Luquet,  Pataud,  etc. —  The 
management  of  the  syndicalist  commonwealth  of  the 
future.  :„. 67 

CHAPTER  VI 

THE  NEW  UNIONISM  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES:  INDUSTRIAL- 
ISM.—  Pioneer  industrialist  organizations;  the  Na- 
tional Labor  Union;  the  Knights  of  Labor;  The  In- 
ternational Working  People's  Association;  The  In- 
ternational Workingmen's  Association;  the  American 
Railway  Union;  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners. 

—  The  Chicago  conference. —  The  first  I.  W.  W.  pre- 
amble.    Internal  dissensions. —  The  second  preamble. 
— The    I.    W.    W.,    its    history    and    methods. —  The 
strikes  of  the  I.  W.  W. —  Its  leaders  St.  John,  Hay- 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

wood,  Ettor,  Giovannitti,  Trautman,  Elizabeth  Flynn. 
• — The  industrialist  idea  and  the  A.  F.  of  L. —  The 
Chicago  newspaper  strike  and  its  consequences. — 
The  new  policy  of  the  A.  F.  of  L.;  organizing 
unskilled  workers. —  The  New  Unionism  and  the 
I.  W.  W.;  The  Haywood  case.  .......  92 

CHAPTER  VII 

THE  NEW  UNIONISM  IN  ENGLAND:  SYNDICALISM.  The 
chartist  movement. —  The  labor  unrest  of  1910. —  The 
Ben  Tillett  resolution. —  Tom  Mann's  activity;  his 
pamphlets;  Tom  Mann  on  parliamentary  action. — 
The  "open  letter  to  British  Soldiers." — The  call  for 
amalgamation. —  Railroaders  now  united  in  one  big 
union  with  200,000  members. — The  socialist  party  dis- 
approves of  syndicalism 124 

CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  NEW  UNIONISM  IN  ITALY:  SYNDICALISM.  The  revolt 
of  the  Sicilian  peasants. —  The  year  1900. —  The  Cen- 
tral Secretariat  of  Resistance. —  The  organization  of 
the  C.  G.  L. —  The  conservative  policy  of  the  C.  G.  L. ; 
its  attitude  to  strikers. —  The  cooperatives  and  their 
plight;  the  glassblowers  and  their  financial  difficul- 
ties.—  The  Italian  Syndical  Union. —  Labriola  and 
Leone  on  Italian  syndicalism 148 

CHAPTER  IX 

THE  NEW  UNIONISM  IN  GEBMANY:  LOCALISM.  The 
trade  union  congress  of  1900. —  The  independent  con- 
gress of  1907. —  The  Freie  Vereinigung;  its  press. — 
The  aims  of  the  localists. —  Localists  expelled  from 
the  socialist  party .  160 

CHAPTER  X 

THE  NEW  UNIONISM  IN  AUSTRALIA,  NEW  ZEALAND  AND 
SOUTH  AFRICA. —  Tom  Mann  and  Dora  Montefiore  on 
"  labor  governments." —  Workers  jailed  for  striking 
and  for  refusing  to  serve  under  the  flag. —  The  growth 
of  the  industrialist  idea ..,  ..  ,.,  ...  .  16$ 

CHAPTER  XI 

THE  NEW  UNIONISM  IN  OTHER  COUNTRIES. —  Argentina; 
Austria;  Chile;  British  Columbia;  Holland;  Japan; 
Scandinavia;  Switzerland. ..,  ...  M  M  ...  *  M  .•>  •  173 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  XII 

INTERNATIONAL  RELATIONS. —  The  C.  G.  T.  and  the  Inter- 
national Secretariate. — Le  Bulletin  International.  .  181 

CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  INFLUENCE  OP  THE  NEW  UNIONISM  ON  MODERN 
THOUGHT. — Cornelissen's  warning. —  The  Bergson  case. 
—  Paulhan,  Chide,  Le  Roy. —  Is  Sorel  a  syndicalist  ? 
Sorel's  lack  of  understanding  of  the  C.  G.  T.'s  spirit; 
SorePs  conservatism;  his  theory  of  myths;  his  "apol- 
ogy for  violence  " ;  his  puritanical  views. —  Felix  Le 
Dantec  and  his  theory  of  rights;  cynicism  and  revo- 
lution; parliaments  and  majorities;  the  unreasonable 
compensation  of  merit.  .  ,  ...  .......  186 


Wi  RICH 

THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

CHAPTER  I 

THB  NEW  UNIONISM:  A  DEFINITION 

NEW  UNIONISM.  At  the  present  day  the  New  Un- 
ionism, that  is  labor's  endeavor  to  free  itself  from  the 
existing  forms  of  organization  and  improve  upon 
them,  goes  by  a  different  name  in  almost  every 
country.  In  the  United  States,  Industrialism,  in 
England,  Syndicalism,  in  France,  Revolutionary 
Syndicalism,  in  Germany,  Localism  or  Anarcho- 
Socialism.  Robert  Rives  La  Monte  even,  attempted 
to  call  it  New  Socialism. 

Before  attempting  to  tell  what  it  is,  we  con- 
sider it  imperative  to  tell  what  it  is  not.  It 
is  neither  anarchism,  nor  trade  unionism,  nor  reform- 
ism, nor  political  socialism,  nor  Marxian  socialism. 

Radical  papers  and  pamphlets  are  fond  of  display- 
ing the  Marxian  motto :  "  The  emancipation  of  the 
workers  must  be  accomplished  by  the  workingmen 
themselves."  Thusi  far,  however,  the  worker  has 
always  been  prone  to  believe  that  someone  else  was 
going  to  emancipate  him  and  could  emancipate  him 
quicker  than  he  himself  could.  Certain  theorists 
hold  out  a  millennium  to  the  workers  on  one  appar- 
ently simple  and  fair  condition :  that  the  workers  give 
the  theorists  a  formal  warrant  to  go  forth  and  con« 
c[uer  it  in  their  behalf. 


2  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

Other  theorists  also  hold  out  a  millennium  to  the 
workers  but  without  pointing  out  any  practical  means 
to  bring  about  the  great  change :  this  is  why  anarch- 
ism has  never  appealed  to  more  than  a  handful  of  in- 
tellectuals with  bucolic  tastes.  It  has  no  modern 
solution  to  offer  for  any  of  to-day's  problems.  The 
criticisms  formulated  by  anarchists  against  modern 
society  are  generally  sound  but  purely  negative. 
Rousseau,  Proudhon,  Tolstoy,  Stirner  have  no  mes- 
sage for  the  practical  man  who  knows  that  the  com- 
plexity of  our  civilization  cannot  be  abolished  by  a 
mere  act  of  negation. 

In  Les  Nouveaux  Aspects  dw  SociaUsme  Edouard 
Berth,  a  French  syndicalist  writer  expressed  himself 
as  follows  on  the  differences  between  the  syndicalist 
and  the  anarchist  viewpoint  : 

Syndicalists  are  grateful  to  the  capitalist  system  not  only 
for  the  material  wealth  it  has  created  but  also  and  particu- 
larly for  the  moral  and  intellectual  transformation  it  has 
brought  about  within  the  masses  of  the  workers,  who,  owing 
to  capitalism's  iron  discipline,  have  been  lifted  out  of  their 
original  sluggishness  and  anarchistic  individualism,  and 
rendered  capable  of  more  and  more  perfect  collective  labor. 

Syndicalists  admit  that  civilization  began  and  had  to  be- 
gin with  some  form  of  coercion  and  furthermore,  that  such 
coercion  was  beneficial  and  creative,  and  that  if  we  can  look 
forward  to  a  system  of  liberty  without  the  tyranny  of  the 
employers  or  the  tyranny  of  the  state  it  is  owing  to  the 
capitalist  system  of  coercion  which  has  disciplined  man- 
kind and  made  it  gradually  capable  of  rising  to  labor  freely 
and  voluntarily  performed.  Against  that  system  of  coer- 
cion, anarchism  has  constantly  protested;  it  curses  civiliza- 
tion which  demands  so  much  effort  and  gives  us  so  little 
happiness  in  return  j  we  might  say  that  this  protest  of  the 


A  DEFINITION  3 

anarchist  merely  voices  the  revolt  of  the  lazy  individual, 
of  the  primitive  savage,  of  the  mature  man  against  a  sys- 
tem which  tried  to  break  him  to  the  discipline  of  labor.  .  .  . 
Such  a  protest  is  purely  negative,  nay,  reactionary.  .  .  . 
For  society  is  a  coordination  of  efforts,  not  a  juxtaposition 
of  egos  seeking  mere  enjoyment.  .  .  .  Anarchism  is  merely 
exaggerated  bourgeoisism.  An  anarchist  is  often  a  deca- 
dent bourgeois;  his  eagerness  for  a  return  to  nature  is  very 
similar  to  the  tired  bourgeois'  craving  for  a  fresh  air  cure 
in  the  country. 

A  recent  convert  who  has  come  to  syndicalism 
after  nrachi  social  experimenting  along  the  reformist 
and  cooperative  lines,  Frederick  Van  Eeden,  writes  in 
the  (London)  Syndicalist: 

Anarchism  neglected  the  immense  importance  of  organ- 
ization, and  supposed  the  workers  to  be  capable  without 
leadership,  without  discipline,  of  achieving  the  tremendous 
task  of  creating  a  well-organized  commonwealth.  This  was 
indeed  Utopia  in  its  worst  sense.  It  jumped  long  periods  of 
slow  and  difficult  education.  It  did  not  teach  the  workers 
the  terrible  strength  of  their  opponents,  the  exploiters.  It 
did  not  realize  how  the  intricate  structure  of  modern  society 
demanded  great  organizing  capacities,  scientific  knowledge, 
economical  insight,  first-rate  leadership,  and  strict  discipline, 
in  order  to  replace  the  old  order  by  a  new  and  a  better  one. 
So  anarchism  was  soon  paralyzed  and  left  behind  in  the 
struggle.  It  could  strike,  but  not  conquer.  It  proved  to 
be  destructive,  not  constructive.  It  withered  for  want  of 
successful  deeds. 

William  E.  Trautirian,  a  practical  industrialist 
organizer,  is  emphatic  in  his  defense  of  modern  civil- 
ization, much  maligned  by  anarchists ;  he  writes : 

No  destruction,  no  waste,-  no  return  to  barbarism.  A 
higher  plane  of  civilization  is  to  be  achieved.  When  the 


$  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

workers  understand  how  the  industrial  system  of  to-day  has 
developed,  how  one  industrial  pursuit  dovetails  into  another, 
and  all  constitute  an  indivisible  whole,  they  will  not  wan- 
tonly destroy  what  generations  of  industrial  and  social 
forces  have  brought  forth. 

Trade  unionism  offered  a  seemingly  more  practical 
solution  of  labor  problems  and,  what  is  more  im- 
portant to  the  masses,  immediate  advantages.  Every 
craft  was  to  organize  its  members  in  local  unions  de- 
manding high  entrance  fees  and  monthly  dues,  prac- 
ticing collective  bargaining  with  employers  and  par- 
liamentarians or  electing  their  own  representatives 
to  parliament.  Thus  shorter  hours  and  higher  wages 
could  be  obtained  at  least  for  the  organized  minority, 
the  aristocracy  of  labor,  at  the  cost,  it  is  true,  of  an 
increase  in  the  cost  of  living  for  unionized  and  non- 
unionized  workers  alike. 

Craft  organization  is  as  exclusive  as  guild 
organization  and  aims  at  benefiting  not  labor  but 
the  chosen  few  who  succeed  in  saving  the 
required  fee  and  also  in  being  admitted  to  mem- 
bership (which  is  not  always  secured  by  the  mere 
payment  of  a  fee  and  perfect  eligibility).  The  spirit 
of  craft  unions  is  well  illustrated  by  a  quotation  from 
an  address  delivered  by  John  H.  Walker,  President 
of  the  Illinois  Miners  before  the  Illinois  convention. 
of  1912: 

I  would  also  favor  the  discussion  and  consideration  of 
the  question  of  compelling  new  members  to  serve  apprentice- 
ships and  minimize  the  number  of  apprenticeships  as  much 
as  possible,  thus  preventing  an  influx  of  new  members. 

William  D.  Haywood  said  in  a  speech  on  the  Gen- 
eral Strike,  delivered  on  August  20,  1911 ; 


Remember  that  there  are  35,000,000  workers  in  the  United 
States  who  cannot  join  the  American  Federation  of  Labor. 
It  isn't  a  working  class  organization.  It  realizes  that  by 
improving  the  labor  power  of  a  few  individuals  and  keep- 
ing them  on  the  inside  of  a  corral,  keeping  others  out  by 
raising  initiation  fees  or  by  closing  the  books,  the  favored 
few  are  made  valuable  to  the  capitalists ;  it  is  simply  a  com- 
bination of  job  trusts. 

In  Why  strikes  are  lost,  William  E.  Trautmau 
shows  us  the  consequences  of  such  a  selfish  policy  on 
the  part  of  craft  unions : 

Because  craft  unions  charge  arbitrary  initiation  fees, 
some  of  them  as  the  green  bottle  blowers,  five  hundred  dol- 
lars, and  others  from  fifty  to  two  hundred  dollars,  it  follows 
that  men  and  women  who  have  not  the  means  are  debarred 
and  driven  to  become  strike  breakers.  In  the  craft  unions 
if  a  man  loses  his  job  and  finds  employment  in  another  in- 
dustry, and  wants  to  remain  a  union  member,  he  is  charged 
another  initiation  fee.  Some  workers  have  to  carry  cards  of 
four  or  five  different  unions  in  their  pocket  and  pay  dues  to 
as  many.  Do  you  wonder  that  strike  breakers  are  bred  out 
of  such  conditions? 

The  same  and  other  charges  are  brought  up  against 
French,  English  and  German  craft  unions  by  the 
French  syndicalist,  Hubert  Lagardelle: 

Unions  are  applying  to  their  own  members  the  autocratic 
rules  laid  down  by  capitalists.  They  have  organized  a  work- 
ers' government  as  harsh  as  the  bourgeois  government,  a 
workers'  bureaucracy  as  heavy  footed  as  the  bourgeois  bu- 
reaucracy, a  central  office  which  tells  the  workers  what  they 
can  do  or  cannot  do,  a  thing  which  destroys  in  the  unions 
and  in  their  members  all  spirit  of  independence  and  initia- 
tive and  frequently  leads  its  victims  to  wish  for  a  return  of 
capitalist  autocracy. 


&  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

English  and  German  unions  have  also  observed  that  the 
most  valuable  thing  in  bourgeois  society  was  money.  .  .  . 
Hence  their  miserly  practices,  their  habit  of  hoarding,  their 
enormous  reserve  funds,  the  transformation  of  unions  into 
mutualist  enterprises,  into  provident  and  savings  institu- 
tions, into  financial  agencies.  What  freedom  have  they  con- 
quered, these  workers  who  beside  their  employers  have  given 
themselves  other  workers  as  masters;  in  what  respect  are 
they  revolutionary,  those  proletarians  who  are  hoarding 
money  in  the  belief  that  they  can  beat  capitalists  at  the 
capitalistic  game? 

Not  only  does  craft  organization  preclude  all 
solidarity  between  union  laborers  and  non-union 
laborers  but  the  history  of  craft  unionism  is  a  con- 
tinuous record  of  fights  between  closely  allied  crafts, 
one  craft  trying  to  prevent  another  craft  from  doing 
certain  work  or  scabbing  (as  the  English  say,  black 
legging),  on  another  craft  union  strike. 

We  quote  from  the  journal  of  the  (English)  A.  S. 
E.  (Amalgamated  Society  of  Engineers)  the  follow- 
ing items : 

The  question  has  again  come  under  consideration,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  boilermakers  having  threatened  a  stoppage 
of  work,  the  demand  made  being  that  the  whole  of  the  stud- 
ding of  armor  plates,  apart  from  the  protection  of  am- 
munition hoists,  was  the  work  of  the  boilermakers.  .  .  . 
Evidence  was  produced  by  the  firm  showing  that  since  the 
introduction  of  this  studded  armor  that  studs  had  been  put 
in  by  engineers,  and  we  therefore,  restated  our  full  claim 
to  put  in  all  studs  on  machine-faced,  scarphed  joints. 

Encroachments  upon  our  work  by  pipe  fitters  have  been 
put  right.  These  pipe  fitters  have  now  been  taken  under 
the  wing  of  the  Plumbers'  Society.  ...  At  another  firm  a 
question  of  demarcation  as  between  ourselves  and  plumbers 
was  settled  in  our  favor. 


'Jii  DEFINITION  fl 

'A  question  of  demarcation  has  arisen  between  the  Boiler- 
makers' Society  at  the  L.  C.  C.,  Generating  Station,  Green- 
wich. Apparently  the  management  has  not  deemed  it  neces- 
sary to  employ  a  boilermaker  on  the  staff,  and  our  members 
have  been  working  on  the  tubes  in  some  of  the  boilers, 
the  scurfers  doing  the  remainder.  On  attention  being  called 
to  it,  we  have  intimated  that  our  members  have  no  desire  to 
continue  on  this  work,  and  would  be  pleased  to  see  a  boiler- 
maker  employed;  but  the  management  have  so  far  declined 
to  accede  to  the  request  of  the  Boilermakers'  Society  by  em- 
ploying one,  and  it  is  now  under  consideration  as  to  whether 
our  members  should  refuse  to  do  any  such  work,  and 
thereby  assist  the  boilermakers  in  obtaining  the  employment 
of  one  of  their  members  on  the  work. 

What  such,  a  spirit  may  lead  to  in  time  of  strike 
;was  told  graphically  in  a  speech  by  Eugene  V.  Debs : 

While  we  are  upon  this  question,  let  us  consult  industrial 
history  a  moment.  We  will  begin  with  the  craft  union  rail- 
road strike  of  1888.  The  Brotherhood  of  Engineers  and  the 
Brotherhood  of  Firemen  on  the  C.  B.  &  Q.  system  went  out 
on  strike.  Some  2000  engineers  and  firemen  vacated  their 
posts  and  went  out  on  one  of  the  most  bitterly  contested 
railroad  strikes  in  the  history  of  the  country.  When  they 
went  out,  the  rest  of  the  employes,  especially  the  conduct- 
ors, who  were  organized  in  craft  unions  of  their  own,  re- 
mained at  their  posts,  and  the  union  conductors  piloted  the 
scab  engineers  over  the  line.  I  know  whereof  I  speak.  I 
was  there.  I  took  an  active  part  in  that  strike. 

I  saw  craft  union  pitted  against  craft  union,  and  I  saw 
the  Brotherhood  of  Engineers  and  the  Brotherhood  of  Fire- 
men completely  wiped  from  the  C.  B.  &  Q.  system.  And 
now  you  find  these  men,  seventeen  years  later,  scattered  all 
over  the  United  States.  They  had  to  pay  the  penalty  of 
their  ignorance  in  organizing  a  craft  instead  of  organizing 
as  a  whole. 

In  1892  a  strike  occurred  on  the  Lehigh  Valley;  the  same 


S  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

result.  Another  on  the  Toledo,  Ann  Arbor  &  North  Mich- 
igan. Same  result.  The  engineers  have  had  no  strike  from 
that  time  to  this.  Every  time  they  have  had  a  strike  they 
have  been  defeated. 

The  railroad  corporations  are  shrewd  enough  to  recognize 
the  fact  that  if  they  can  keep  certain  departments  in  their 
employ  in  a  time  of  emergency  they  can  defeat  all  the  rest. 
A  manager  of  a  railroad  who  can  keep  control  of  fifteen  per 
cent,  of  the  old  men  can  allow  eighty-five  per  cent,  to  go  out 
on  strike  and  defeat  them  every  time.  That  is  why  they 
have  made  some  concessions  to  the  engineers  and  conductors 
and  brakemen,  and  now  and  then  to  the  switchmen,  the  most 
militant  labor  union  of  them  alL 

A  year  and  a  half  ago  the  telegraph  operators  on  the  Mis- 
souri, Kansas  &  Texas  went  out  on  strike.  The  engineer  re- 
mained at  his  post ;  so  did  the  fireman ;  the  conductor  at  his  j 
and  the  brakeman  at  his.  And  they  hauled  the  scabs  that 
flocked  from  all  parts  of  the  country  to  the  several  points 
along  the  line,  and  delivered  them  in  good  order  to  take  the 
places  vacated  by  the  strikers;  worked  all  around  them  and 
with  them  until  they  had  mastered  the  details  of  their  sev- 
eral duties;  and  having  done  this,  the  strike  was  at  an  end, 
and  the  1300  craft  unionists  out  of  jobs.  You  will  find 
them  scattered  all  over  the  country. 

Whatever  apparent  advantages  were  secured  by  the 
craft  union  system  for  an  organized  minority  are 
now  in  danger  of  being  totally  obliterated  by  recent 
developments  in  the  industrial  field.  The  skilled 
worker  entrenched  in  his  union  occupied  a  well  nigh 
impregnable  position  when  the  mastery  of  one  craft 
presupposed  years  of  schooling  and  practice.  Now- 
adays two  factors  are  conspiring  to  reduce  skilled 
labor  to  a  rank  of  insignificance.  The  ever  increas- 
ing specialization  characteristic  of  industrial  progress 
divides  up  jobs  into  almost  every  one  of  their  com- 


A  DEFINITION  $ 

ponent  motions  so  that  any  individual  of  average 
intelligence  may  learn  in  a  day  or  a  week  how 
to  run  any  mechanical  appliance  used  in  shop  or 
mill. 

Besides  specialized  machinery,  inventors  have  been 
at  work  producing  apparatus  which  reduce  not  only 
the  numher  of  unskilled  laborers  necessary  to  accom- 
plish a  given  task  (we  are  not  alluding  to  steam- 
shovels  or  grain  elevators  and  the  like),  but  the  num- 
ber of  highly  skilled  artisans,  accomplishing  the  least 
mechanical  type  of  work. 

For  instance  the  organization  of  the  glass  blowers 
was  so  perfect  that  entrance  fees  had  been  raised  to 
$500  and  that  it  was  contemplated  to  raise  them  to 
$1000  in  the  case  of  foreign  workers. 

Of  a  sudden  the  Owens  machine,  at  first  considered 
as  unpractical,  threatens  to  wipe  off  entirely  the  craft 
of  glassblowing.  The  Owens  machine  invented  in 
1903  can  now  be  used  to  blow  any  glass  receptacle 
from  a  half-ounce  bottle  to  a  twelve  gallon  demijohn. 
In  the  year  1909,  forty-nine  Owens  machines  with 
a  producing  capacity  per  machine  of  about  111  gross 
in  twenty-four  hours,  produced  about  1,700,824;  gross. 
It  would  have  required  1320  skilled  blowers  to  pro- 
duce the  same  number  of  bottles.  The  union  had 
2395  men  idle.  Up  to  January,  1913,  the  advance  of 
the  machine  was  slow  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  out- 
put of  the  Owens  Company's  machine  shop  was 
limited  to  fifty  machines  a  year.  The  new  shop 
which  is  now  open  will  be  able  to  turn  out  over  one 
hundred  automatic  blowers  a  year.  Furthermore  the 
new  machine  having  ten  arms  instead  of  six  can  turn 


10  THE  NEW,  UNIONISM 

out  200  gross  a  day  instead  of  111.  In  less  than 
two  years  the  trade  of  glass  blower  will  have  entirely 
disappeared.  This  is  of  course  an  extreme  case  but 
statistics  prove  that  many  other  crafts  are  threatened 
with  extinction  in  a  very  near  future. 

In  the  Westinghouse  Electric  Company's  works  in 
Pittsburg  19,000  men  were  employed  in  1907.  In 
1911  the  output  was  the  same  as  in  1907  but  the 
number  of  men  employed  was  only  10,000.  Im- 
proved machinery  had  reduced  the  working  force  by 
almost  fifty  per  cent,  in  four  years. 

The  same  tendency  is  observable  in  the  iron,  steel, 
cement  and  other  basic  industries.  The  high-priced 
stereotypers  are  being  displaced  very  fast  by  the  auto 
machine  which  even  in  its  imperfect  state,  enables 
now  one  man  and  a  boy  to  do  the  work  of  four  men. 

Thus  far  "  labor "  in  every  country  had  meant 
organized  skilled  labor,  the  one  force  capital  had  to 
contend  with.  At  present  "  everything  combines  to 
place  the  unskilled  laborer  in  a  strategic  position  in 
the  labor  struggle "  as  Austin  Lewis  writes  in 
Proletarian  and  Petit  Bourgeois: 

He  has  become  the  one  vital  factor  without  which  no  vic- 
tory in  the  fight  between  the  laborer  and  the  capitalist  can 
be  had.  .  .  .  The  unskilled  laborer  is  not  as  a  rule  a  voter; 
he  can  seldom  stay  long  enough  in  one  place  to  acquire  resi- 
dence. .  .  .  The  theory  in  the  United  States  at  least  is  that 
such  employment  is  permanent  only  for  the  unfit  ...  it  is 
no  longer  tenable.  .  .  .  The  appropriation  of  public  lands, 
the  practical  closing  of  opportunity,  the  degradation  of  the 
crafts  in  face  of  the  consolidation  of  industry,  all  tend  not 
only  to  shut  the  avenues  of  escape  for  the  unskilled  laborer 
but  to  greatly  increase  his  numbers. 


A  DEFINITION  ID 

Although  New  Unionists  are  not  concerned  witH 
the  opinions  of  dead  theorists  who  could  in  no  way 
foretell  the  gigantic  industrial  advance  of  the  pres- 
ent day  we  may  remind  the  reader  that  Marx  always 
disparaged  the  role  which  trade  unions  were  to 
play  in  the  social  revolution.  He  said,  in  an  ad- 
dress delivered  before  the  Workingmen's  Interna- 
tional : 

Trade  unions  are  efficient  as  centers  of  resistance  against 
the  encroachments  of  capital.  They  fail  to  a  certain  extent, 
however,  from  an  injudicious  use  of  their  power.  They  fail 
generally  because  they  confine  themselves  to  a  guerilla  war 
against  the  effects  of  the  existing  system  instead  of  trying 
to  change  it  in  its  entirety,  instead  of  using  their  organized 
forces  as  a  lever  for  the  final  emancipation  of  the  working 
class,  that  is  to  say,  the  ultimate  abolition  of  the  wage  sys- 
tem. 

Eeformist  and  revolutionary  socialists  tell  the 
workers  that  if  socialists  can.  only  capture  the  State 
through  propaganda  leading,  either  to  an  overwhelm- 
ing victory  at  the  polls  or  to  a  successful  revolution, 
the  socialist  state  or  the  socialist  government  will  run 
the  nation  and  its  industries  for  the  benefit  of  the 
workers. 

Only  it  is  not  evident  that  the  tyranny  of  a  social- 
ist state  would  be  more  easily  borne  than  that  of  a 
capitalist  state.  Furthermore  the  process  may  con- 
sume a  great  many  years.  Finally  the  failure  of 
several  socialist  ministers  and  of  one  socialist  premier 
in  France  to  accord  to  the  workers  a  treatment  differ- 
ent from  what  they  would  have  expected  at  the 
hands  of  a  radical  or  reformist,  is  unlikely  to  spur 


12  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

the  workers  to  renewed  efforts  to  secure  representation 
in  parliament. 

The  ballot  has  magnificent  theoretical  possibilities ; 
practically,  its  results  are  slow  and  doubtful ;  besides 
the  ballot  is  restricted  to  a  certain  class  of  the  popula- 
tion and  at  least  in  every  country  to  a  certain  race, 
while  all  classes  and  races  work  side  by  side  in  every 
country  of  the  world. 

Hubert  Lagardelle,  at  the  socialist  congress  held  in 
Nancy  on  August  14,  1907,  said: 

The  two  tendencies  of  modern  socialism  (reformed  and 
revolutionary)  are  equally  Utopian,  for  they  attribute  to  the 
coercive  power  of  the  state  a  creative  value  it  lacks  en- 
tirely. .  .  .  You  cannot  conjure  overnight  out  of  nothing  an 
organized  system  of  society.  Whatever  authority  you  may 
dispose  of,  you  will  not  impart  to  the  workers  who  elected 
socialist  candidates,  to  the  voters,  who  for  frequently  futile 
and  abstract  motives  are  following  you,  the  ability  to  reg- 
ulate production  and  distribution.  You  will  be  the  masters 
of  the  hour,  you  will  hold  all  the  power  which  yesterday  was 
vested  in  the  middle  classes,  you  will  pile  up  decree  upon  de- 
cree, law  upon  law,  but  you  will  not  work  any  miracle,  you 
will  not  at  a  stroke  enable  the  workers  to  replace  the  capi- 
talists. 

Why  should  the  coming  into  power  of  a  few  socialist  poli- 
ticians transform  the  psychology  of  the  masses,  modify  their 
feelings,  increase  their  ability,  create  new  life  habits  and 
enable  a  society  of  free  men  to  take  the  place  of  a  society  of 
masters  and  slaves?  No,  it  is  not  upon  a  mere  change  in 
the  governmental  personnel  that  the  transformation  of  the 
world  depends.  That  would  be  too  simple,  and  progress  de- 
mands much  more.  A  social  system  is  not  born  without  a 
long  preparation  and  in  this  connection,  syndicalism,  with  a 
more  practical  view  of  things  pits  against  your  theories, 
what  I  have  called  institutional  socialism.  We  wish  to  re- 


mind  the  workers  that  no  change  will  be  possible  until  they 
have  created  with  their  own  hands  a  system  of  institutions 
destined  to  replace  the  bourgeois  system. 

The  state,  in  its  present  form,  is  necessarily  and  essen- 
tially national.  It  was  created  to  defend  and  bring  pros- 
perity to  a  definite  area  of  land,  and  with  a  tendency  to 
enrich  itself  at  the  cost  of  all  other  national  groups. 
This  means  simply  capitalism  —  the  gospel  of  exploitation 
—  transferred  to  groups  or  states  instead  of  individuals. 
The  state  is  capitalistic  in  its  deepest  essence.  It  was 
started  for  the  sake  of  exploitation,  and  the  best  governed 
state  must  always  remain  capitalistic,  because  its  attitude  to 
other  states  is  either  hostile  or  indifferent. 

Therefore,  when  socialists  look  to  the  state  as  the  true 
commonwealth  and  want  the  state  to  take  possession  of  the 
sources  of  wealth  and  to  abolish  the  abuses  of  monopoly  or 
exploitation,  they  will  necessarily  drift  into  Nationalism  — 
as  we  see  it  happen  in  Germany  and  France  —  and  thereby 
lose  their  true  socialistic  character. 

This  was  felt  by  the  leaders  of  anarchism  —  when  the 
great  schism  between  Bakunin  and  Marx  took  place. 

For  identical  reasons  the  Welsh  miners  who  are 
ardent  syndicalists  oppose  nationalization  or  govern- 
ment ownership  of  public  utilities  proposed  by  reform 
socialists.  "  It  would,"  one  of  their  speakers  said, 
"  lead  to  the  formation  of  a  national  trust  with  all 
the  force  of  the  government  behind  it,  whose  one  con- 
cern will  be  to  see  that  the  industry  is  run  in  such 
a  way  as  to  pay  the  interest  on  the  bonds  with  which 
the  coal  owners  are  paid  out,  and  to  extract  as  much 
more  profit  as  possible  in  order  to  relieve  the  taxation 
of  other  landlords  and  capitalists." 

Lagardelle  considers  that  the  socialist  view  of  the 
great  change  is  lazy  and  sterile. 


141  THE  STEW  UNIONISM 

If  in  order  to  build  up  a  freer  world  we  must  simply  let 
capitalist  society  drift  down  the  stream  of  its  own  evolution, 
what  becomes  of  me,  as  an  individual?  Am  I  the  weak  tool 
of  irresistible  forces,  of  economic  and  political  factors  which 
are  to  save  me  against  my  wishes  and  transport  me  into  some 
Earthly  Paradise?  ...  If  the  workers  wish  to  emancipate 
themselves  from  the  tutelage  of  employer  and  state,  and  live 
without  masters  of  production  or  masters  of  politics,  they 
must  first  train  themselves  for  action  and  educate  their 
will  power.  This  is  why  syndicalism  says  to  them:  Have 
faith  in  yourselves  only!  Your  salvation  is  in  yourselves. 
The  world  will  only  be  what  you  will  make  it.  ...  And  the 
syndicalist  practice  of  "direct  action"  teaches  men  that 
nothing  is  preordained,  for  it  is  men  who  make  history.  .  .  . 
While  indirect  action  lulls  vitality  to  sleep,  saps  will  power 
and  panders  to  the  lowest  human  instincts,  direct  syndicalist 
action  stimulates  the  dormant  powers  of  the  individual  and 
combats  his  low  desire  for  passivity.  .  .  . 

Even  if  the  ballot  and  parliamentary  action  could 
solve  the  social  problem  for  certain  classes  of  workers 
there  would  remain  the  ever-increasing  masses  of  un- 
skilled workers  to  whom  the  ballot  is  of  no  earthly 
use.  Tossed  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other 
by  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  labor  market  they  seldom 
remain  long  enough  in  one  region  to  qualify  as  voters, 
not  to  mention  being  eligible  to  any  office. 

According  to  John  Sandgren  there  are  in  this 
country  "  approximately  eighteen  million  people  who 
can  in  no  manner  be  directly  interested  in  politics, 
to  wit:  1,TOO,000  children  wage  workers,  4,800,000 
women  wage  workers,  3,500,000  foreign  wage 
workers,  5,000,000  negro  wage  workers,  3,000,000 
floating  and  otherwise  disfranchised  wage  workers." 

Furthermore,  the  demand  for  unskilled  labor  to- 


A  DEFINITION  15 

gether  with  the  development  of  means  of  communica- 
tion may  take  the  worker  to  foreign  countries  where 
he  is  denied  the  franchise  unless  it  be  some  of  the 
South  American  republics  which  give  at  least  the  mu- 
nicipal ballot  to  every  newcomer.  Everywhere  else 
workers  of  that  class  lose  their  local  and  national  in- 
terests and  acquire  more  and  more  the  international 
point  of  view.  The  question  of  taxation,  municipali- 
zation  or  nationalization  of  public  utilities,  cannot 
interest  them. 

The  ballot,  finally,  is  a  way  of  delegating  one's 
power  to  demand  the  satisfaction  of  one's  wants  to 
another  individual  designated  more  by  his  powers  of 
persuasion  than  by  his  knowledge  of  our  wants  to 
speak  in  our  behalf.  More  leisure,  more  education 
and  the  consequent  growth  of  intelligent  individual- 
ism have  sapped  the  belief  of  the  workers  in  the 
superiority  and  omniscience  of  leaders.  They  real- 
ize more  and  more  keenly  that  the  emancipation  of  the 
workers  must  be  accomplished  by  the  workers  them- 
selves. "  JSTo  longer  will  the  proletariat  satisfy  itself 
with  the  belief  that  parliamentary  action  will  bring 
the  relief  which  it  so  earnestly  deserves.  ...  It  has 
learned  the  lesson  that  political  power  is  merely  the 
reflex  of  economic  power  and  that  political  advantage 
can  only  be  had  through  economic  superiority." 
(Austin  Lewis  in  Proletarian  and  Petit  Bourgeois.) 

The  tendency  among  socialists  all  over  the  world 
is  rather  to  keep  the  dogma  pure  than  to  look  for 
practical  results.  Barring  the  French  Socialist  party 
in  which  three  different  groups  have  finally  given  up 
anathematizing  one  another  and  have  agreed  upon  a 


16  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

modus  vivendi,  the  various  parties  are  busy  expelling 
nonconformists,  that  is,  in  the  last  analysis,  men  who 
are  more  concerned  with  bringing  about  the  great 
change  in  a  modern  and  systematic  way  than  with 
the  oorrect  interpretation  of  Marx's  thought.  The 
clear-headed  worker  who  is  unwilling  to  wait  cen- 
turies for  his  emancipation  is  supplied  with  dam- 
nable evidence  against  socialist  leaders  in  the  form 
'of  praise  showered  upon  socialism  by  the  capitalist 
press. 

The  Berliner  Tageblatt  for  January  15,  1913,  de- 
clared that  "  the  Socialist  party  was  at  present  so 
fettered  by  its  bureaucracy  and  its  dogmas  that  al- 
though one-third  of  the  electorate  was  socialistic, 
conservatives  did  not  have  to  feel  in  the  least  dis- 
turbed." 

In  the  United  States,  the  Century  Magazine  greets 
the  expulsion  of  Industrialists  from  the  Socialist 
party  as  "  a  great  gain  for  true  conservatism."  The 
World's  Work  foresees  that  "  the  socialists  whom  we 
have  been  brought  up  to  regard  as  dangerous  radicals, 
will  be  classified  as  one  of  the  strong  and  conserva- 
tive bulwarks  of  the  country." 

In  devoting  so  much  space  to  an  exposition  of  what 
The  New  Unionism  is  not  we  have  followed  in  the 
main  the  example  of  the  syndicalist  and  industrialist 
writers,  especially  of  England  and  France,  who  take 
great  pains  to  make  their  position  clear  in  regard 
to  reformism,  socialism,  trade  unionism  and  anarch- 
ism. When  we  consider  how  frequently  socialism,  a 
much  older  doctrine,  is  constantly  associated  in  the 
lay  mind  with  its  absolute  opposite,  anarchism,  such 


A  DEFINITION  If 

a  protracted  foreword  may  not  appear  out  of  place. 

What,  then,  is  the  New  Unionism  ? 

It  is  the  practice  which  will  enable  the  workers  to 
assume  as  the  return  for  their  labor  the  full  control 
of  the  various  industries.  It  is,  mark  the  word,  a 
practice  not  a  theory.  It  is,  to  quote  the  word  of 
a  former  secretary  of  the  French  Confederation  of 
Labor,  "  the  result  of  much  experimenting,  and  is 
shaped  much  more  by  actual  conditions  that  by  any 
individual  in  particular.  These  practical  experi- 
ments haven't  followed  a  straight  line  by  any  means ; 
the  movement  is  characterized  by  much  incoherence, 
it  brims  with  inconsistency.  And  it  is  thus  because 
it  is  not  the  result  of  actions  performed  in  accord- 
ance with  certain  dogmas  but  because  it  is  a  prod- 
uct of  life,  modified  and  renewed  from  day  to 
day. 

"  The  great  difficulty  one  encounters  in  a  move- 
ment of  this  type  is  the  bringing  into  being  of  a  truly 
syndicalist  life  which  is  not  all  on  the  surface.  This 
cannot  be  done  by  making  conditions  and  actions  fit 
one  given  theory  but  by  endeavoring  to  direct  them 
towards  some  definite  ends  formulated  as  concisely 
as  possible." 

All  human  beings  regardless  of  age,  sex,  race,  na- 
tionality or  craft  employed  in  any  industry  must  en- 
roll themselves  in  "one  big  union."  For  administra- 
tive purposes  only,  the  "  big  union  "  can  be  divided 
up  into  industrial  unions,  not  craft  unions. 

A  craft  union  is  organized  according  to  the  tools 
used,  the  industrial  union  according  to  the  product 
created  by  the  industrial  group.  For  instance,  in- 


18  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

stead  of  chartering  a  weavers'  union,  a  loom-fixers' 
union,  a  menders'  union,  a  twisters'  union,  a  mule 
spinners'  union  —  and  other  separate  unions  based 
upon  old-time  craft  divisions  in  the  textile  industry 
—  the  I.  W.  W.  chartered  one  Local  Industrial  Union 
of  Textile  Producers.  Office  boys  under  age,  chore- 
women,  bookkeepers,  colored  workers,  engineers,  mill 
hands,  be  they  all  natives  or  foreign  born,  are  welcome 
as  members  of  the  one  big  union  which  excludes  none 
but  idlers. 

Some  ill-informed  writers  insist  on  making  a  sharp 
distinction  between  industrialism  and  syndicalism  on 
the  ground  that  "  a  big  union,"  for  instance  the 
American  I.  W.  W.,  is  an  independent  organism, 
while  the  syndicalists  of  France  or  England  are  only 
a  faction  of  a  larger  organization  founded  originally 
on  craft  lines.  The  principles  however  are  the  same, 
much  as  their  present  policy  and  immediate  methods 
may  apparently  differ. 

Such  distinctions  are  usually  drawn  by  adversa- 
ries of  the  movement  who  are  endeavoring  to  stamp 
it  as  foreign  and  ill-adapted  to  "  our  temperament." 

For  instance  we  notice  that,  while  Algernon  Lee 
warns  Americans  against  syndicalism  which  is  too 
typically  Latin  ever  to  suit  the  Anglo-Saxon  tempera- 
ment, Turati  warns  Italians  against  it  because  it  was 
too  typically  French  and  Australian  laborites  warn 
their  countrymen  against  it  because  it  is  too  typically 
American,  etc. 

Above  all  things  no  one  should  be  prevented  from 
joining  the  union  by  financial  considerations.  The 
more  destitute  a  worker  is,  the  more  he  needs  the  sup- 


port  of  his  fellow  workers.  The  entrance  fees  and 
monthly  dues  of  the  New  Unions  are  purely  nominal. 
Neither  must  a  union  member  who  fails  to  find  em- 
ployment in  his  trade  be  penalized  if  he  wishes  to 
take  up  some  other  trade,  temporarily  or  permanently. 
In  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  for  instance,  if 
a  unionized  engineer  out  of  work  wishes  to  take  a  job 
as  electrician  and  yet  does  not  relish  the  idea  of  being 
a  "  scab,"  he  must  pay  a  new  entrance  fee  and  keep 
up  his  monthly  dues  in  both  unions.  Some  men 
carry  the  cards  of  four  or  five  different  unions  and 
pay  dues  to  as  many.  And  let  us  remember  that  en- 
trance fees  range  from  $25  to  $500'. 

The  New  Unionism  does  away  with  such  abuses. 
Once  a  member  of  the  One  Big  Union,  man,  woman,  or 
child  may  change  jobs  as  frequently  as  circumstances 
may  demand  and  step  without  further  expense  into 
the  union  of  workers  employed  in  whatever  industry 
fate  may  compel  him  or  her  to  work.  This  elimi- 
nates both  jurisdictional  disputes  such  as  are  rend- 
ing English  Unions  asunder  and  the  embittering  con- 
flicts between  striking  and  non-striking  unions  such 
as  Debs  described.  The  motto  of  the  New  Unionism 
is :  "  An  injury  to  one  is  an  injury  to  all." 

Gaylord  Wilshire  writes : 

Syndicalism  has  no  thought  of  arranging  industry  upon 
the  basis  of  each  group  of  workers  in  each  industry  holding 
up  the  community  to  the  full  extent  of  its  economic  power 
in  order  to  extract  the  greatest  amount  of  reward  for  its  par- 
ticular form  of  labor. 

The  remuneration  of  the  workers  will  be  determined  either 
by  deeds,  or  by  needs,  as  may  hereafter  be  decided,  but  most 


20  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

certainly  not  upon  the  basis  of  allowing  him  a  reward  ac- 
cording to  the  importance  of  his  industrial  product  to  the 
community,  for  that  would  be  merely  changing  the  present 
system,  with  its  small  number  of  capitalist  exploiters,  to  a 
worse  system,  with  a  myriad  of  exploiting  workers. 

Thus  organized,  the  workers  will  present  a  united 
front  to  the  employers  and  their  strength  will  be 
well-nigh  irresistible.  Thus  the  hours  of  labor  will 
be  reduced,  child  labor  abolished,  competition  between 
workers  will  disappear  and  the  surplus  army  of  un- 
employed labor  reabsorbed  into  the  active  social  body. 
Thus  a  gradual  expropriation  of  capital  will  take 
place,  and  the  workers  will  finally  receive  the  full 
value  of  everything  they  produce. 

Moreover,  to  quote  W.  E.  Trautman,  "  the  workers 
will  become  conscious  of  their  power,  and  they  will 
develop  the  faculties  to  operate  the  factories  and 
mills,  etc.  .  .  .  through  agencies  and  instruments  of 
their  own  creation." 

How  will  the  change  come  about  ?  This  is  rather 
hard  to  foretell.  Some  socialists  of  an  optimistic 
turn  of  mind  predict  that  the  transition  from  capital- 
ism to  socialism  will  be  hardly  noticeable.  The  same 
uncertainty  prevails  as  to  the  change  from  capitalism 
to  industrialism. 

Kobert  Rives  La  Monte,  who  attempts  to  reconcile 
socialism  and  the  New  Unionism  by  calling  the  latter 
New  Socialism  wrote  in  the  International  Socialist 
Review  for  September,  1912: 

The  New  Socialism  tends  to  assure  a  peaceful  revolution. 
This  the  Old  could  never  do.  Curiously  enough  the  idea  has 
gained  currency  in  America  that  Haywood,  Maun  and  the 


A  DEFINITION  &% 

New  Socialists  generally  are  advocates  of  force  and  violence, 
while  the  Old  Socialists  of  the  parliamentary  type,  such  as 
Berger,  Hillquit  and  Spargo,  love  peace  and  eschew  violence. 
This  is  almost  the  exact  reverse  of  the  truth.  It  was  the  par- 
liamentarian, Derger,  who  in  a  signed  article  advised  every 
Socialist  to  buy  a  rifle.  It  was  the  parliamentarian,  Hill- 
quit,  who  said  that  if  the  Socialists  were  not  allowed  to 
seat  peacefully  the  officials  they  had  elected  they  would,  "  if 
need  be,  fight  like  tigers  on  the  barricades." 

The  New  Socialists  look  on  riots,  barricades  and  street 
fighting  as  hopelessly  obselete  with,  the  capitalist  class  in 
full  possession  of  all  the  machinery  of  war.  The  weapon 
upon  which  they  rely  is  the  power  of  the  workers  peacefully 
to  fold  their  arms  in  such  numbers  as  to  paralyze  industry 
and  force  the  unconditional  surrender  of  the  capitalist  class. 

How  will  the  industrial  commonwealth  manage 
itself?  Here  again  the  leaders  of  the  New  Union- 
ism have  placed  the  wishes  of  the  actual  workers 
above  the  imaginings  of  philosophers  and  theorists. 

The  question  blanks  sent  out  regularly  by  the 
French  Confederation  of  Labor  (see  page  89)  show 
that  the  New  Unionism  is  not  depending  for  inspira- 
tion upon  the  fanciful  writings  of  a  Proudhon  or  a 
Bellamy. 

To  quote  again  from  Robert  Rives  La  Monte : 

While  the  New  Socialism  is  not  in  essentials  in  conflict 
with  the  Old,  it  easily  answers  two  objections  that  always 
gave  pause  to  the  apologists  of  the  Old.  The  first  of  these 
is  implied  in  the  common  query :  "  How  are  you  going  to 
see  to  it  that  the  world's  work  is  done  after  your  victory  ?  " 
The  Old  Socialism,  looking  forward  to  a  political  victory, 
had  no  convincing  answer.  The  New  Socialism  says  the 
very  organization  that  wins  the  victory  will  carry  on  so- 
ciety's work  after  the  victory  is  won,  and  that  without  any 
interval  of  disorganization.  Indeed  it  is  impossible  for  the 


22  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

New  Socialism  to  win  until  it  is  fully  prepared  morally  and 
technically  to  shoulder  the  responsibilities  to  mankind  the 
victory  will  impose  upon  it. 

The  second  of  these  objections  to  Socialism  is  commonly 
stated :  "  You  must  change  human  nature  to  make  Socialism 
practicable."  The  New  Socialist  answers,  the  process  of  ob- 
taining Socialist  victory  will  change  human  nature ;  our  vic- 
tory will  only  come  after  human  nature  has  been  sufficiently 
changed. 

Many  writers  on  the  subject  of  the  New  Unionism 
concede  that  but  for  the  propaganda  carried  on 
through  the  various  socialist  organizations  the  ad- 
vent of  the  New  Unionism  would  have  been  consider- 
ably delayed  if  not  made  impossible,  and  they  con- 
sider the  New  Unionism  as  the  logical  successor  to 
socialism.  "  Syndicalism  grew  out  of  Socialism," 
Frederick  Van  Eeden  says,  "  as  the  Reformation 
grew  out  of  the  Old  Christianity." 

It  took  fourteen  centuries  of  blundering  and  aberration 
to  convince  a  few  honest  people  that  existing  Christianity 
was  not  what  Christ  had  really  meant,  and  that  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  was  not  the  sort  of  an  establishment  He 
had  in  mind  as  a  result  worth  being  crucified  for. 

Things  move  now  at  a  more  rapid  rate.  Socialism  has 
been  a  great  movement  for  somewhat  over  a  century.  We 
have  seen  it  split  up  into  Communism,  Collectivism,  Anarch- 
ism, and  Social  Democracy,  or  Political  Socialism. 

None  of  these  have  brought  us  what  we  hoped  for. 

Syndicalism  is  for  Socialism  what  the  Reformation  was 
ifor  the  Christian  Religion. 

According  to  Gaylord  Wilshire,  it  is  quite  useless 
to  connect  in  any  way  syndicalism  and  socialism : 

Syndicalism  is  inverted  Socialism.  The  difference  be- 
.  Iween  Syndicalism  and  Socialism  is  the  difference  between  a 


A  DEFINITION!  23 

man  and  a  machine.  The  man  himself  controls  his  own 
activities;  the  machine  is  controlled  from  without. 

Both  Syndicalism  and  Socialism  look  to  a  world-wide 
democratic  organization  of  the  workers  for  cooperative  pro- 
duction and  distribution.  But  whereas  Socialism  looks  to 
social  organization,  proceeding  from  the  present  Capitalist 
State  downward  to  the  workers,  the  Syndicalist  looks  to  the 
evolution  proceeding  upward  from  the  workers  to  organ- 
ized society. 

Instead  of  the  State  giving  industrial  control  to  the  work- 
ers, as  the  Socialists  fondly  hope,  the  Syndicalists  look  to  the 
workers  taking  such  control  and  giving  it  to  the  community. 
—(Syndicalism.  What  it  is.\ 


CHAPTER  II 

DIRECT  ACTION:      I.    THE    STRIKE 

POTJGET  writes : 

Direct  action  means  this:  the  workers  struggling  con- 
stantly with  their  present  environment,  no  longer  expect  any- 
thing from,  men,  powers  or  forces  outside  of  their  own 
ranks.  It  means  that,  against  our  present  society,  which 
only  knows  the  "  citizen,"  a  new  society  is  rising,  made  up 
of  "producers."  The  producers  realizing  that  the  social 
body  is  shaped  by  its  system  of  production,  intend  to  trans- 
form entirely  the  capitalist  mode  of  production,  to  eliminate 
the  employers  and  thereby  to  conquer  industrial  freedom. 
Direct  action  means  that  the  working  classes  recognize  the 
principle  of  freedom  and  autonomy  instead  of  bowing  to 
the  principle  of  authority. 

And  Vandervelde  writes  in  the  (Brussels)  Peuple: 

In  order  to  take  from  the  capitalist  a  bone  that  contains 
yet  a  little  marrow,  it  is  not  sufficient  for  the  worker  to  give 
his  representatives  a  formal  warrant  to  fight  in  his  be- 
half. .  .  .  The  great  truth  contained  in  the  theory  of  direct 
action  is  that  one  cannot  obtain  vital  reforms  through  inter- 
mediaries. .  .  .  The  workers  have  relied  too  much  thus  far, 
on  political  and  cooperative  action  which  follows  the  line  of 
least  resistance ;  they  have  deluded  themselves  into  believing 
that  as  soon  as  they  would  have  representatives  in  parlia- 
ment, roast  squabs  would  naturally  fall  into  their  plates. 

IXVetot  writes  in  his  A.  B.  C.  Syndicalist^ 
24 


DIRECT  ACTION:    I.  THE  STRIKE      25 

Legislation  affecting  the  workers  is  perfectly  useless  un- 
less it  is  a  confirmation  of  advantages  already  conquered  by 
them. 

Pierrot  in  Syndicalisme  ei  Revolution  remarks  also 
that: 

Representatives  in  parliament,  be  they  socialist  or  not, 
move  only  under  pressure  from  public  opinion  and  when 
they  fear  the  possibility  of  disorders. 

We  reviewed  in  Chapter  I  the  various  arguments 
advanced  by  the  New  Unionists  against  parliamen- 
tary action  and  the  use  of  the  ballot.  Initiative,  ref- 
erendum and  recall  are  of  slim  interest  to  New  Un- 
ionists for  the  same  reason;  they  presuppose  years 
of  parliamentary  propaganda  and  are,  in  final  analy- 
sis, a  confession  of  the  popular  belief  that  representa- 
tives will  some  time  misrepresent  their  constitu- 
ency. 

New  Unionists  contend  furthermore  that  political 
action  has  a  tendency  to  create  disunion  within  the 
ranks  of  labor. 

Behold  the  efforts  made  by  labor  unions  to  have  an 
anti-injunction  bill  passed.  Three  times  since  1889 
an  anti-injunction  bill  has  been  voted  upon  favorably 
by  the  House  of  Representatives,  but  never  has  it  be- 
come a  law.  The  Senate  committee  on  the  judiciary 
to  which  it  was  referred  never  took  any  action  upon 
it.  The  majority  of  the  men  who  twenty-three  years 
ago,  decided  to  take  steps  to  limit  the  power  of  in- 
junctions are  now  old  men ;  many  have  died,  without 
even  a  gleam  of  hope  that  their  wishes  would  be  some 
day  inscribed  on  the  statute  books. 


26  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

The  publicity  and  lobby  work  without  whicK 
neither  the  public  nor  the  house  would  realize  the 
importance  of  a  bill,  consume  a  good  deal  of  the 
workingman's  cash.  Also  when  a  case  drags  out  for 
twenty-three  years  and  is  not  nearer  solution  in  1912 
that  it  was  in  1889,  the  working  man's  mind  harbors 
a  suspicion  that  the  representative,  a  man  of  a  differ- 
ent class,  the  press  agent,  an  "  intellectual,"  the  lob- 
byist, a  journalist  or  lawyer,  are  not  as  energetic  and 
aggressive  as  the  case  would  require  them  to  be. 

The  expense  account  or,  as  slang  has  it,  the  "  swin- 
dle sheet "  of  the  various  lobby  "  workers  "  is  apt  to  be 
questioned  by  simple  men  who  are  innocent  of  taxicab 
rides  and  unfamiliar  with  the  drink  checks  issued 
in  fashionable  bars.  The  judgment  of  those  who 
once  suggested  the  legislative  campaign  or  had  a  part 
in  appointing  the  "  workers  "  comes  in  for  a  good 
deal  of  hard  criticism. 

Behold  on  the  other  hand  some  of  the  longest 
strikes  in  the  history  of  modern  labor.  It  was  in 
every  case  a  question  of  only  a  few  weeks  or  a  few 
months.  Whether  a  strike  ends  in  victory  or  de- 
feat, the  suspense  is  soon  over;  furthermore  the 
strikers  themselves  are  caring  for  their  own  interests ; 
the  strike  is  an  education  for  them,  as  it  affords  them 
more  leisure  to  discuss  conditions  from  every  point 
of  view.  In  the  meeting  hall  they  become  better 
acquainted  with  one  another;  in  certain  cases,  as  in 
the  Lawrence  strike  or  in  the  cooks'  and  waiters' 
strike,  the  public  is  apprised  of  facts  which  could  not 
have  been  exposed  through  any  other  procedure.  At 
the  end  of  the  conflict  the  men2  beaten  or  victorious, 


DIRECT  ACTION":    I.  THE  STRIKE      27 

are  better  united  for  having  fought  together  shoulder 
to  shoulder. 

French  syndicalists  are  fond  of  referring  to 
Dreyfus's  retrial  and  final  rehabilitation  as  an  ex- 
ample of  successful  direct  action.  For  several  years, 
useless  attempts  were  made  by  some  of  Dreyfus's 
friends  to  obtain  for  the  unfortunate  officer  through 
parliamentary  means  the  benefit  of  a  new  trial.  It 
was  not  until  a  nation-wide  agitation,  resulting  sev- 
eral times  in  bloody  riots,  had  shown  to  Parliament 
the  real  state  of  the  public  mind  that  Dreyfus  was 
allowed  to  wage  a  fair  fight  for  his  life. 

The  results  of  direct  pressure  exerted  by  the 
workers  upon  the  authorities  to  save  Durand  and 
Rousset  in  France,  Ettor,  Giovannitti  and  Caruso  in 
the  United  States  from  being  railroaded  to  the  scaf- 
fold are  present  to  every  reader's  mind.  There  was 
no  essential  difference  between  the  Haymarket  case 
and  the  Lawrence  case.  The  attitude  of  the  workers 
alone  prevented  the  Italian  agitators  from  sharing 
the  fate  of  the  Chicago  anarchists. 

Other  cases  of  a  similar  nature  uphold  the  New 
Unionists'  contention  that  it  is  not  only  easier  but 
more  rational  to  call  the  workers  out  of  the  shop  for 
a  distinct,  concrete  purpose  than  to  lead  them  to  the 
polls  where  they  will  deposit  a  ballot  in  favor  of 
several  candidates  unknown  to  them  and  whose  acts 
will  have  only  a  problematic  bearing  upon  their 
economic  conditions. 

Direct  action  may  assume  two  different  forms; 
either  the  workers  will  stop  working  altogether  or 
they  will  perform  work  under  conditions  detrimental 


2S  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

to  their  employers.  In  the  first  case  they  will  strike, 
in  the  second  they  will  apply  sabotage. 

The  aims  and  purposes  of  a  New  Unionist  strike 
are  quite  different  from  those  of  a  trade  union  strike. 
Trade  unions  admit  that  employers  have  a  right  to 
live  as  employers  and  therefore  a  trade  union  strike 
is  merely  a  readjustment  of  the  workers'  remunera- 
tion made  necessary  by  the  rising  cost  of  living. 

New  Unionists  deny  that  employers  have  any  right 
to  exist  as  employers.  The  employer  being  in  their 
eyes,  not  a  part  of  the  social  body  but  a  parasite  on 
the  social  body,  must  be  driven  out  of  existence  by 
all  available  means  much  as  pathogenic  microbes  must 
be  driven  out  of  a  patient's  system,  the  choice  of 
remedies  being  determined  solely  by  the  physician's 
care  not  to  affect  any  of  the  patient's  vital  organs. 

New  Unionists  will  not,  therefore,  go  on  strike 
for  the  exclusive  purpose  of  securing  material  ad- 
vantages of  a  temporary  nature.  When  they  return 
to  work  they  do  not  pledge  themselves  to  remain  at 
work  for  any  definite  period  of  time,  they  may  strike 
again  a  week  later  without  giving  notice,  without 
even  giving  any  reason  for  quitting  work. 

When  the  unionized  workers  demand  an  increase 
in  wages  of  say,  one  dollar  a  week,  they  leave  the 
shops  until  the  increase  is  granted,  after  which  they 
sign  with  their  employers  an  agreement  by  which  they 
bind  themselves  to  work  at  the  new  rate  for  two  or 
three  years. 

A  successful  strike  like  the  Lawrence  strike  on  the 
other  hand  may  assure  the  workers  certain  advan- 
tages, but  it  gives  the  employers  no  guarantee  of 


DIRECT  ACTION:    I.  THE  STRIKE      29 

peace.  The  fact  that  the  satisfied  mill  hands  re- 
turned to  work  did  not  imply  the  settlement,  even 
temporarily,  of  a  labor  dispute.  It  was  a  mere  truce 
during  which  the  attacking  forces  planned  to  re- 
cuperate and  fit  themselves  for  a  renewed  attack  on  an 
enemy  with  whom  no  treaty  shall  be  signed  and  who 
must  finally  either  destroy  the  workers  or  be  de- 
stroyed by  them. 

Workers  on  strike  may  either  remain  on  the  em- 
ployer's premises  or  withdraw  from  them.  In  the 
"  folded  arms  "  strike  the  workers  remain  idle  at  their 
posts  for  several  hours  or  several  days  at  a  time,  re- 
suming work  as  soon  as  the  employers  secure 
a  sufficient  contingent  of  strike  breakers.  This 
method  was  applied  several  times  by  the  French  tele- 
phone girls,  once  in  particular  when  Minister  Simian, 
who  had  refused  to  consider  the  employes'  demands, 
visited  the  Central  Telephone  Exchange  in  Paris. 

When  the  workers  walk  out  of  the  shops  or  offices 
they  may  do  so  to  enforce  their  own  demands  or  in 
order  to  show  their  sympathy  with  other  groups  of 
workers  on  strike.  For  instance,  when  forty-five 
members  of  the  Millmen's  Union  in  Colorado  City 
were  discharged  for  taking  part  in  labor  struggles, 
5000  Cripple  Creek  miners  struck  in  sympathy. 

"  Irritation  strikes "  are  short  spasmodic  strikes 
during  which  the  workers  leave  their  jobs  without 
notice,  returning  to  work  for  a  while,  then  withdraw- 
ing again  without  notice  until  they  attain  their  ob- 
ject. 

In  industries  employing  only  skilled  labor,  the 
"  bumper  strike  "  devised  by  Victor  Griffuehles  (see 


30  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

page  86)  enables  the  workers  to  harass  employers 
for  a  protracted  period  of  time  without  exhausting 
their  financial  resources.  In  1907  as  the  outlook  was 
becoming  very  dark  for  the  Paris  jewelry  workers  on 
strike,  Griffuehles  ordered  them  back  to  work  with 
the  exception  of  those  employed  in  one  shop.  Those 
few  men  were  allowed  to  remain  on  strike  for  another 
week  during  which  time  their  brother  jewelers  levied 
an  assessment  on  their  own  salaries  to  insure  them  a 
living  wage.  At  the  end  of  the  week  the  strikers 
were  sent  to  work  and  a  walk  out  was  declared  in 
another  shop  the  employes  of  which  were  supported 
in  the  same  manner. 

That  particular  bumper  strike,  however,  was  not 
inaugurated  until  the  beginning  of  the  slack  season 
and  the  employers,  realizing  that  the  union  had  no 
reserve  funds,  responded  to  Griffuehles'  tactics  by  a 
general  lockout  which  starved  the  men  into  submis- 
sion. 

The  question  of  timely  strikes  and  of  economical 
strikes  has  been  considered  with  special  care  by  all 
organizers.  To  be  able  to  strike  at  the  proper  time, 
that  is  when  factories  and  mills  are  rushed  with  or- 
ders, the  workers  must  not  be  tied  by  any  contracts 
with  their  employers.  Contracts  not  only  prevent 
the  workers  from  enforcing  their  own  demands  but 
also  from  striking  in  sympathy  with  other  crafts  and 
thus  making  an  impressive  display  of  strength  and 
Bolidarity. 

Finally  as  Vincent  St.  John  put  it  in  his  descrip- 
tion of  the  I.  W.  W.  methods  (see  page  104),  "  the 
day  of  successful  long  strikes  is  past."  A  long  strike 


DIRECT  ACTION:    I.  THE  STRIKE      31 

exhausts  the  strikers'  resources  and  if  lost  is  a  source 
of  much  discouragement;  after  being  defeated  the 
men  must  remain  at  work  for  a  long  while  regardless 
of  conditions,  until  their  strike  fund  is  replenished. 
We  show  elsewhere  (page  125)  how  the  English 
railroadmen's  concern  for  their  investments  hampered 
them  in  their  fight. 

Yvetot,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  French  Confed- 
eration of  Labor,  writes  in  his  A.  B.  C.  Syndicaliste : 

Unions  with  big  reserve  funds  are  of  use  only  in  caring 
for  the  sick  and  the  unemployed.  Instead  of  being  a  wea- 
pon in  the  fight  against  long  hours  and  thus  decreasing  the 
amount  of  sickness  among  the  workers  those  big  reserve 
funds  are  only  used  to  perpetuate  the  evil  by  helping  the 
sufferers. 

However  large  a  strike  fund  may  be,  we  know  very  well 
that  it  will  never  exceed  the  employers'  fund.  Witness  the 
famous  strike  of  English  engineers:  Twenty-seven  millions 
were  spent  in  strike  pay  and  yet  the  strike  failed. 

The  tendencies  among  New  Unionists  all  over 
the  world  is  toward  the  abolition  of  strike  funds. 
For  New  Unionists  no  longer  consider  what  material 
advantages  were  achieved  when  they  estimate  the  re- 
sults of  one  given  strike.  Statisticians-  waste  their 
time  computing  how  many  strikes  were  lost  and  how 
many  were  won.  In  many  cases  a  strike  from  which 
the  workers  derive  no  concrete  advantage  may  con- 
stitute a  decisive  victory  from  the  point  of  view  of 
future  struggles.  It  cannot  be  said  that  the  Hotel 
Workers'  strikes  of  1912  and  1913  in  the  United 
States  were  financial  successes;  and  yet,  the  strong 
organization  which  was  born  from  the  various  strike 


32  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

meetings  and  the  solidarity  which  now  unites,  not 
only  men  of  different  nationalities  employed  in  hotels 
and  restaurants  but  all  the  workers  in  the  different 
lines  of  employment,  waiters,  bellboys,  porters,  chefs, 
dishwashers,  chambermaids,  etc.,  will  make  the  fight 
between  employers  and  their  united  help  very  differ- 
ent in  the  future  from  what  it  was  as  long  as  the 
hotel  and  restaurant  workers  remained  a  mass  of  un- 
organized and  hostile  elements. 

New  Unionist  strikes  are  mere  incidents  in  the  class 
war ;  they  are  tests  of  strength,  periodical  drills  in  the 
course  of  which  the  workers  train  themselves  for  con- 
certed action.  This  training  is  most  necessary  to 
prepare  the  masses  for  the  final  "  catastrophe,"  the 
general  strike,  which  will  complete  the  expropriation 
of  the  employers. 

According  to  Haywood,  Pouget  and  other  New 
Unionist  writers,  the  French  Commune  of  1870—71 
was  no  less  than  a  general  strike  with  an  industrialist 
purpose.  Barring  the  Commune,  however,  it  may 
be  said  that  there  never  has  been  in  any  country  a 
strike  important  enough  fully  to  justify  the  epithet 
of  general.  Furthermore  the  purpose  of  the  various 
strikes  alluded  to  as  "  general "  was  very  insignifi- 
cant when  one  bears  in  mind  the  present  New  Union- 
ist connotation  of  the  general  strike.  None  of  them 
aimed  at  a  complete  reshaping  of  the  social  system. 
Most  of  those  manifestations  were  organized  for  the 
mere  purpose  of  bringing  strong  pressure  to  bear  upon 
parliament. 

In  1893,  200,000  Belgian  workers  responded  to  a 
$all  for  a  general  strike  after  a  universal  suffrage 


DIKECT  ACTION:    I.  THE  STRIKE      33 

bill  had  been  defeated  in  the  Chamber  and  the  Sen- 
ate. The  government  was  frightened  and  a  bill  was 
passed  establishing  a  compromise  system  of  plural 
voting.  In  1902,  300,000  Belgian  workers  tried 
once  more  to  intimidate  the  Belgian  government; 
this  second  attempt  failed,  for  the  government  was 
fully  prepared  to  check  the  strikers'  activity  by  the 
use  of  the  military.  As  this  book  is  going  to  press 
the  Belgian  strike  of  April,  1913,  in  which  some 
500,000  men  took  part  seems  to  have  compelled  the 
Belgian  government  to  commit  itself  to  the  principle 
of  universal  suffrage. 

In  1902  the  Swedish  workers  decided  to  demand 
the  franchise  through  a  general  strike.  In  several 
cities  and  especially  in  Stockholm,  all  the  public  serv- 
ices were  crippled  and  the  authorities,  taken  by  sur- 
prise, granted  a  few  unimportant  concessions  which 
apparently  sufficed  to  appease  the  strikers. 

In  1903  a  political  general  strike  in  Holland  failed 
as  the  second  Belgian  strike  had  failed. 

In  1904,  Italy  was  partly  paralyzed  by  a  general 
strike  of  three  days'  duration  which  ended  in  defeat. 

In  1903  the  mere  threat  of  a  general  strike  fright- 
ened the  French  parliament  into  passing  legislation 
which  had  been  for  many  years  demanded  by  the 
workers.  In  October,  1903,  the  Confederal  Com- 
mittee of  the  C.  G.  T.  held  an  extraordinary  meeting 
to  consider  the  suppression  of  employment  bureaus. 
For  several  years  the  workers  in  several  trades,  par- 
ticularly in  the  food-producing  industries  had  ex- 
pressed deep  grievances  against  those  offices.  In 
1902  after  twenty-five  years  of  agitation  and  lobby- 


M  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

ing,  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  had  passed  a  bill  sup- 
pressing them  but  the  Senate  rejected  that  bill  and 
the  question  appeared  definitely  shelved.  Protest 
meetings  were  held  the  same  day  all  over  France  un- 
der the  management  of  the  Labor  Exchanges  and  at 
every  one  of  them  threats  of  violence  were  made  by 
the  speakers.  Soon  afterwards  the  Chamber  by  495 
votes  against  fourteen  decided  the  suppression  of  em- 
ployment bureaus.  Four  months  later  the  Senate 
confirmed  the  Chamber's  decision. 

The  Russian  general  strike  of  October,  1904,  was 
very  successful  as  it  compelled  the  Czar  to  grant  the 
country  a  constitution. 

Very  little  was  accomplished  by  the  Italian  strikes 
of  1906,  1907,  1908,  the  Swedish  strike  of  1909,  and 
the  French  strikes  of  1910. 

The  Austrian  strike  of  1905  in  which  300,000 
workers  took  part  forced  the  government  to  grant  uni- 
versal suffrage. 

At  the  time  of  the  Morocco  and  Tripoli  war  general 
strikes  were  ordered  in  Spain  and  Italy  but  had  no 
appreciable  effect  on  the  attitude  of  the  governments 
of  the  two  countries. 

Besides  the  fact  that  those  general  strikes  were  not 
"  general "  by  any  means,  their  failure  was  due  in 
almost  every  case  to  the  fear  of  repression  by  the  reg- 
ular army. 

No  popular  movement  can  prevail  against  armed 
troops.  The  French  revolution  of  1789  would  have 
been  doomed  to  failure  had  the  Guardes  Franchises 
not  joined  hands  with  the  Paris  rioters.  Therefore 
preparation  for  the  general  strike  entails  a  vigorous 


DIRECT  ACTION:    I.  THE  STRIKE      35 

antimilitary  propaganda  such  as  is  conducted  in 
France  by  the  C.  G.  T.,  and  has  been  decided  upon 
by  the  newly  created  Italian  Syndical  Union. 
The  number  of  deserters  or  of  conscripts  refus- 
ing to  answer  the  summons  to  join  their  regiment 
has  become  very  alarming  for  the  French  authorities. 
It  is  said  to  have  reached  last  year  the  100,000  mark. 
It  18  very  doubtful  if  the  French  government  would 
dare  again  to  use  the  army  against  strikers  after  the 
incidents  which  marked  the  Southern  winegrowers' 
riots,  when  a  regiment  not  only  refused  to  fire  upon 
the  advancing  mob  but  actually  showed  its  sympathies 
with  the  rioters  by  joining  their  parade. 

It  happens  very  frequently,  however,  that  the  gov- 
ernment breaks  a  strike  by  sending  enlisted  men  not  to 
frighten  the  strikers  but  to  man  plants  after  the  work- 
ers have  walked  out.  This  occurred  on  the  occasion 
of  the  electrical  strikes  in  Paris. 

There  is  also  another  ever-present  danger  which 
the  workers  must  not  minimize.  Even  if  the  national 
army  could  be  relied  upon  to  betray  the  established 
government  at  the  eleventh  hour,  the  outcome  of  the 
general  strike  would  be  very  doubtful  unless  the 
fighting  forces  of  the  neighboring  nations  were  deeply 
permeated  with  the  revolutionary  spirit. 

This  is  the  reason  why  some  socialists  of  France 
and  Germany  while  theoretically  antipatriotic  are 
afraid  of  antimilitarist  propaganda.  They  remem- 
ber the  years  following  the  French  Revolution  when 
the  powers  of  Europe  sent  their  armies  to  invade 
France  in  an  endeavor  to  stamp  out  the  republican 
idea.  They  tremble  lest  a  too  successful  antimilitary 


3d  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

propaganda  might  defeat  its  purpose  by  leaving  a 
more  radical  country  at  the  mercy  of  its  better  armed 
and  more  conservative  neighbors. 

The  campaign  waged  against  war  and  militarism 
by  the  New  Unionists  of  Europe  especially  in  France 
and  Germany  (see  chapters  V  and  IX),  will,  nev- 
ertheless, be  a  powerful  factor  in  preserving  peace. 
It  is  very  probable  that  the  antiwar  strike  called  by 
the  C.  G.  T.  when  the  Balkan  troubles  threatened 
to  cause  a  European  conflagration,  a  strike  in  which 
half  a  million  workers  took  part,  contributed  in  cer- 
tain measure  to  discouraging  the  bellicose  financiers 
and  politicians  of  France. 

Before  closing  the  chapter  on  strikes,  we  may  men- 
tion the  fact  that  the  French  syndicalists  have 
been  lately  carrying  on  a  propaganda  for  the  Mal- 
thusian  strike.  They  call  this  direct  action  means 
of  decreasing  the  labor  supply  "  la  greve  des  venires." 
One  periodical,  Renovation,  has  been  founded  for 
the  purpose  of  disseminating  among  the  workers  a 
knowledge  of  the  practical  means  by  which  the  birth 
rate  may  be  restricted. 


CHAPTEE  III 

ACTION:    n.  SABOTAGE 

BESIDES  the  strike  which  is  direct  action  in  mass, 
the  workers  have  at  their  command  an  insidious 
means  of  individual  warfare  which,  owing  to  its  very 
nature,  entails  less  important  sacrifices  on  their  part, 
and  is  at  times  fully  as  effective  as  the  strike.  We 
allude  to  sabotage. 

It  was  at  the  federal  congress  held  in  Toulouse, 
France,  in  1897,  that  the  word  sabotage  was  added 
to  the  vocabulary  of  labor  with  its  present  connotation. 
Sabotage  was  originally  a  slang  term  derived  from 
the  word  sabot,  wooden  shoe,  and  designated  work 
carelessly  done,  literally  kicked  about  with  wooden 
shoes.  Sabotage  is  now  found  even  in  official  dic- 
tionaries with  its  old  and  its  new  meaning,  together 
with  the  verb  saboter  and  the  noun  saboteur. 

As  a  direct  action  weapon,  sabotage  is  not  a  new 
thing  by  any  means.  In  his  House  of  Nucingen, 
Balzac,  relating  the  bloody  labor  riots  which  took 
place  in  1831  in  Lyons,  the  city  of  silk  mills,  de- 
scribes certain  reprisals  practiced  by  the  defeated 
strikers,  for  which  he  knew  of  no  special  name  but 
in  which  everyone  will  recognize  a  form  of  sabotage : 

The  Lyons  manufacturers  are  soulless  persons;  never  do 
they  produce  a  yard  of  silk  unless  there  comes  a  formal 

37 


38  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

order  for  it  and  unless  they  feel  safe  about  the  settlement. 
When  orders  are  not  coming  in,  the  weavers  have  to  starve ; 
when  they  are  at  work  they  earn  barely  enough  to  subsist 
on.  People  in  jail  are  better  off  than  they.  After  the 
July  revolution  conditions  became  so  desperate  that  the 
weavers  paraded  the  streets,  carrying  flags  with  the  inscrip- 
tion :  Bread  or  Death !  Republican  agitators  organized  the 
weavers  who  fought  both  for  bread  and  for  the  republican 
principle.  Lyons  had  three  days  of  it  after  which  the 
weavers  returned  to  their  hovels. 

The  weavers  who  had  until  then  been  perfectly  honest,  re- 
turning as  much  silk  in  the  shape  of  cloth  as  they  had  re- 
ceived in  bales,  realized  that  they  were  victimized  by  their 
employers;  while  feeding  the  looms  they  kept  their  fingers 
well  oiled;  they  returned  weight  for  weight  but  also  made 
a  little  money  by  selling  the  extra  silk  replaced  in  the  weave 
by  its  weight  in  oil.  The  silk  market  was  overrun  with 
greasy  silks,  which  might  have  ruined  the  trade  of  Lyons. 
.  .  .  The  result  of  the  disturbances  was  the  appearance  of 
"  gros  de  Naples,"  worth  forty  sous  a  yard. 

In  1881  the  French  telegraphists  employed  in  the 
central  office,  dissatisfied  with  the  rates  for  night  work, 
sent  a  petition  to  Minister  Cochery.  They  demanded 
ten  francs  instead  of  five  for  the  men  serving  on  the 
all  night  shift.  Their  demands  were  completely  ig- 
nored. One  morning  Paris,  which  did  not  have  as 
yet  a  telephone  system,  found  itself  cut  off  from  the 
rest  of  the  world.  This  lasted  five  days  during  which 
gangs  of  engineers  headed  by  electrical  experts  bared 
all  the  wires  connected  with  the  central  office  and 
followed  them  inch  by  inch  through  ducts  and  sew- 
ers. They  were  unable  to  discover  any  break  and 
the  apparatus  responded  perfectly  to  every  test.  The 
fifth  day  the  minister  granted  the  increase  in  wages 


DIRECT  ACTION:    II.  SABOTAGE      39 

demanded  by  the  night  workers  and  telegraphic  com- 
munications were  immediately  resumed.  Detectives 
worked  on  the  case  for  a  long  while  afterwards  but 
failed  to  trace  the  "  mastic  "  to  any  particular  indi- 
yidual  or  group  of  individuals. 

In  1889  the  Glasgow  dockers  asked  for  an  increase 
in  wages  of  two  cents  an  hour.  The  employers  re- 
fused it  and  hired  hundreds  of  agricultural  workers 
to  take  the  dockers'  place.  The  strike  was  lost  and 
the  dockers  agreed  to  go  back  at  the  old  wage  pro- 
vided all  the  agricultural  workers  without  exception 
were  discharged.  This  was  granted.  The  secretary 
of  the  union  called  the  members'  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  employers  had  declared  themselves  perfectly 
satisfied  with  the  work  done  by  the  strike  breakers; 
yet  those  farm  boys  did  not  even  know  how  to  walk 
the  deck  of  a  ship,  they  would  now  and  then  drop 
the  goods  they  carried  and  two  of  them  could  not  do 
as  much  work  as  one  trained  docker.  "  The  con- 
clusion," the  secretary  added,  "  is  obvious ;  do  the 
same  kind  of  work ;  Ca  Canny,  take  it  easy ;  only  those 
fellows  used  to  fall  into  the  water  now  and  then ;  you 
needn't  go  as  far  as  that." 

For  two  or  three  days  the  dockers  practiced  Ca 
Canny,  after  which  the  employers  asked  the  union's 
secretary  to  come  and  confer  with  them.  The  men 
were  granted  the  increase  they  asked  for  provided 
they  abandoned  their  "  canny  "  methods  of  work. 

In  1895  a  mere  threat  of  sabotage,  although  it  was 
not  designated  by  that  name,  won  a  victory  for  mem- 
bers of  the  National  Syndicate  of  Railroaders  of 
France.  The  Merlin-Trarieux  bill  which  would 


40  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

have  made  it  illegal  for  railroad  employes  to  join  a 
syndicate  was  introduced  in  parliament.  The  rail- 
roaders met  to  discuss  the  question  of  organizing  a 
nation-wide  strike  in  response  to  that  proposed  en- 
croachment upon  their  liberties.  Guerard,  then  sec- 
retary of  the  National  Syndicate,  delivered  on  June 
23  an  address  which  caused  much  excitement  in  the 
press  and  parliament  and  in  which  he  declared  that  the 
railroaders  would  not  stop  at  anything  to  accom- 
plish their  purpose.  "  With  two  cents  worth  of  a 
certain  stuff,  used  by  one  who  knows,  a  locomotive  can 
be  made  absolutely  useless." 

At  the  confederal  congress  held  in  Toulouse  in 
1897,  Emile  Pouget  gave  currency  to  the  word  sabot- 
age and  advocated  it  in  a  rather  sensational  fashion. 
The  prefect  of  the  Seine,  M.  de  Selves,  had  refused 
to  delegates  from  the  Syndicate  of  Municipal  Work- 
ers the  leave  of  absence  they  asked  for  in  order  to 
attend  the  congress.  A  resolution  was  offered  at  the 
first  session  of  the  congress  protesting  against  the 
prefect's  attitude.  Pouget  rose  to  oppose  the  passing 
of  that  resolution.  He  said : 

We  would  gain  more  by  doing  something  definite  than  by 
merely  protesting;  instead  of  submitting  to  our  rulers' 
whims,  we  should  return  blow  for  blow;  we  should  give  one 
kick  for  every  slap.  Remember  the  fear  which  was  struck 
into  the  capitalists'  heart  when  our  comrade  Guerard  told 
us  how  a  worker  at  an  expense  of  two  cents  could  prevent  a 
fast  train,  even  with  a  double  header,  from  pulling  out  of  a 
station.  I  present  the  following  substitute  for  the  reso- 
lution before  the  house : 

"The  congress  realizing  that  it  is  futile  to  blame  the  gov-> 
eminent,  which  is  only  discharging  its  .duties  when  it  tight-* 


DIRECT  ACTION:    II.  SABOTAGE     41 

ens  the  screws  on  the  workers,  directs  the  municipal  work- 
ers to  commit  depredations  to  the  extent  of  100,000  francs 
in  the  various  services  of  the  City  of  Paris  in  order  to  repay 
M.  de  Selves  for  his  veto." 

The  congress  voted  down  Pouget's  motion  but  ap- 
pointed a  committee  on  sabotage  and  boycott  whose 
report  was  adopted  unanimously  even  by  the  rather 
conservative  delegates  of  the  Federation  du  Livre 
(Printing  Trades). 

Our  meeting,  the  report  read,  always  adjourns  with  shouts 
of  "  Hurrah  for  the  social  revolution ! "  but,  that  is  just  a 
noise  which  is  never  followed  by  concrete  action.  Likewise 
congresses  have  always  affirmed  their  revolutionary  spirit 
but  have  never  pointed  out  any  practical  means  for  passing 
from  words  to  action.  The  only  revolutionary  weapon 
which  workers  have  been  advised  to  use  is  the  strike  .  .  . 
but  there  are  other  weapons  .  .  .  the  boycott  is  powerless 
in  many  cases  as,  for  instance,  against  a  manufacturer. 
.  .  .  We  must  therefore  resort  to  other  methods,  among 
others  to  sabotage. 

The  report  went  on  to  explain  Ca  Canny  methods 
as  used  by  the  English  dockers,  and  finally  defined 
sabotage  and  described  its  various  applications : 

We  are  aware  that  our  exploiters  always  take  advantage, 
in  order  to  make  our  slavery  worse,  of  the  times  when  it  is 
most  difficult  for  us  to  resist  their  encroachments  through  a 
partial  strike.  ...  By  the  use  of  sabotage,  conditions  are 
entirely  changed;  the  workers  are  in  a  position  to  fight 
back ;  they  are  no  longer  at  the  mercy  of  the  capitalist ;  they 
are  no  longer  the  soft  clay  he  can  mold  to  suit  himself; 
they  have  at  their  command  a  means  to  show  their  manhood 
and  to  prove  to  their  oppressor  that  they  still  are  men. 

Sabotage  is  not  as  new  as  it  would  appear  to  be;  it  has 


42  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

always  been  used  by  the  workers  but  without  any  system. 
They  have  always  decreased  their  output  instinctively  when 
their  master  has  shown  himself  more  exacting;  they  have 
unconsciously  adopted  the  motto :  bad  work  for  bad  pay. 

That  form  of  sabotage  is  probably  responsible  for  the 
substitution  of  piece  work  for  day  work  .  .  .  but  sabotage 
can  be  and  should  be  used  even  by  piece  workers  ...  by 
letting  it  affect  the  quality  not  the  quantity  of  the  goods 
turned  out.  Thus  the  worker  will  not  only  avoid  giving  to 
the  employer  more  of  his  strength  than  he  is  paid  for  but 
he  will  also  hit  the  employer  through  his  dissatisfied  cus- 
tomers. .  .  .  When  the  workers  are  using  machinery  be- 
longing to  their  employer  they  can  practice  sabotage  not 
only  on  the  goods  but  on  the  machine  as  well.  .  .  . 

The  committee  on  boycott  and  sabotage  presented 
the  following-  resolution : 

Resolved,  That  whenever  there  arises  between  employers 
and  workers  a  conflict  due,  either  to  the  employers'  exac- 
tions or  to  the  workers'  initiative,  and  a  strike  does  not  pro- 
duce results  satisfactory  to  the  workers,  the  workers  shall 
use  boycott  or  sabotage  or  both  according  to  the  rules  laid 
down  in  this  report. 

The  resolution  was  passed  unanimously. 

At  the  Rennes  congress  in  1898  many  delegates  re- 
ported on  the  results  which  their  syndicates  or  feder- 
ations had  obtained  through  sabotage.  The  delegate 
of  the  Cooks'  Federation  was  especially  applauded 
when  he  related  humorously  how  a  famous  Paris  res- 
taurant had  been  crippled  when  every  man  in  the 
kitchen  spent  an  afternoon  cooking  bricks,  while  the 
kitchen  clock  and  other  pieces  of  furniture  were  bak- 
ing in  the  oven. 

At  the  Paris  congress  in  1900  a  few  dissenting 


DIRECT  ACTION:    II.  SABOTAGE     43 

voices  were  heard  in  the  discussion  relative  to  sabotage. 
Millerand  was  then  minister  of  commerce  and  many 
militants  in  the  ranks  of  labor  endeavored  to  pave 
their  own  way  to  official  positions  Vy  preaching  "  mod- 
eration "  and  "  good  behavior."  The  chairman  of 
the  congress  rose  to  say  that  he  considered  .sabotage 
as  "  detrimental  to  the  interests  of  the  workers  and  as 
below  their  dignity."  The  conservative  individual, 
who  was  soon  afterwards  appointed  receiver  of  taxes 
in  Bordeaux,  selected  as  reporter  of  the  commission 
on  boycott  and  sabotage  a  delegate  opposed  to  sa- 
botage. In  spite  of  all,  sabotage  was. once  more  en- 
dorsed by  117  votes  against  seventy-six. 

We  may  distinguish  three  forms  of  sabotage : 

1.  Active  sabotage  which  consists  in  the  damaging 
of  goods  or  machinery. 

2.  Open-mouthed  sabotage  beneficial  to  the  ulti- 
mate consumer  and  which  consists  in  exposing  or  de- 
feating fraudulent  commercial  practices. 

3.  Obstructionism  or  passive  sabotage  which  con- 
sists in  carrying  out  orders  literally,  regardless  of 
consequences. 

On  the  subject  of  violent  sabotage  we  read  in  the 
Bulletin  of  the  Montpellier  Labor  Exchange  for 
1900: 

If  you  are  an  engineer  you  can  with  two  cents  worth  of 
powdered  stone  or  a  pinch  of  sand,  stall  your  machine, 
cause  a  loss  of  time  or  make  expensive  repairs  necessary. 
If  you  are  a  joiner  or  woodworker  what  is  simpler  than  to 
ruin  furniture  without  your  boss  noticing  it,  and  thereby 
drive  his  customers  away?  A  garment  worker  can  easily 
spoil  a  suit  or  a  bolt  of  cloth ;  if  you  are  working  in  a  de- 
partment store  a  few  spots  on  a  fabric  cause  it  to  be  sold  for 


&4  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

next  to  nothing;  a  grocery  clerk,  by  packing  up  goods  care- 
lessly, brings  about  a  smash  up ;  in  the  woolen  or  the  haber- 
dashery trade  a  few  drops  of  acid  on  the  goods  you  are 
wrapping  will  make  a  customer  furious  ...  an  agricul- 
tural laborer  may  sow  bad  seed  in  wheat  fields,  etc. 

When  the  Paris  barber  shop  assistants  were  fighting 
for  a  weekly  rest  and  shorter  hours  (from  1902  to 
1906)  they  resorted  to  what  was  called  "  badigeon- 
nage  "  literally,  smearing  up.  They  filled  with  caus- 
tic an  eggshell  whose  contents  had  been  extracted, 
sealed  it  with  gutted  candle  wax  and  in  the  middle 
of  the  night  went  to  throw  it  against  their  employer's 
shop  front.  Out  of  2300  barber  shops  some  2000 
were  treated  by  that  process.  L'Ouvrier  Coiffeur, 
official  organ  of  the  Federation  of  Barbers  estimates 
the  losses  incurred  by  boss  barbers  due  to  badigeon- 
nage  at  200,000  francs.  The  barbers  won  the  weekly 
rest  long  before  parliament  passed  a  law  making  it 
compulsory  in  every  trade. 

Haywood  describes  as  follows  some  of  the  sabotage 
methods  favored  by  the  French  railroaders  during 
their  great  strike  (which,  however,  was  broken  when 
Briand  called  every  railroad  worker  under  the  flag) : 

Before  I  left  that  country,  there  were  50,000  tons  of 
freight  piled  up  at  Havre,  and  a  proportionally  large 
amount  at  every  other  seaport  town.  This  freight  the  rail- 
roaders would  not  move.  They  did  not  move  at  first,  and 
when  they  did  it  was  in  this  way :  they  would  load  a  train- 
load  of  freight  for  Paris  and  by  some  mistake  it  would  be 
billed  through  to  Lyons,  and  when  the  freight  was  found 
at  Lyons,  instead  of  being  sent  to  the  consignee  at  Paris  it 
was  carried  straight  through  the  town  on  to  Bayonne  or 
Marseilles  or  some  other  place  —  to  any  place  but  where  it 


DIRECT  ACTIOK:    II.  SABOTAGE     '4$ 

properly  belonged.  Perishable  freight  was  taken  out  by  the 
trainload  and  sidetracked.  The  condition  became  such  that 
the  merchants  themselves  were  compelled  to  send  their 
agents  down  into  the  depots  to  look  up  their  consignments 
of  freight  —  and  with  very  little  assurance  of  finding  it  at 
all.  That  this  was  the  systematic  work  of  the  railroaders 
there  is  no  question,  because  a  package  addressed  to  Merle, 
one  of  the  editors  of  La  Guerre  Sociale,  was  marked  with  an 
inscription  on  the  corner,  "  Sabotagers  please  note  address." 
This  package  went  through  post  haste.  It  worked  so  well 
that  some  of  the  merchants  began  using  the  name  of  La 
Guerre  Sociale  to  have  their  packages  immediately  delivered. 
It  was  necessary  for  the  managers  of  the  paper  to  threaten, 
to  sue  them  unless  they  refrained  from  using  the  name  of  the 
paper  for  railroad  purposes.  Nearly  all  the  workers  have 
been  reinstated  at  the  present  time  on  the  railroads  of 
France. 

During  the  strike  of  the  Hotel  Workers  in  this 
country  a  few  striking  cooks  went  back  to  work  with 
the  strike  breakers  for  the  purpose  of  spoiling  certain 
dishes,  mixing  caustic  potash  or  powdered  soap  with 
the  soup,  staining  piles  of  linen  with  catsup,  dipping 
the  ends  of  forks  in  crude  oil  or  breaking  expensive 
crockery.  Some  of  their  sympathizers  visited  at 
night  the  best  patronized  restaurants,  dropping  on  the 
floor  little  glass  capsules  known  as  "  stink  pots " 
which,  when  broken  emit  the  most  objectionable 
odors. 

In  its  issue  for  May  21,  1905,  La,  Voix  du  Peuple, 
official  organ  of  the  C.  G.  T.,  pointed  out  that  a  walk- 
out of  all  the  workers  was  insufficient  to  cripple  an 
establishment,  as  long  as  all  the  machinery  was  left 
in  perfect  condition.  Strike  breakers  could  fill  the 
places  left  by  the  strikers  and  within  a  few  hours  the/ 


'46  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

mill  or  factory  would  again  be  running  full  blast. 
Even  a  complete  lack  of  strike  breakers  will  not  in- 
sure the  strikers  victory ;  for  in  several  cases  the  Gov- 
ernment has  placed  enlisted  soldiers  at  the  disposal  of 
employers.  The  Voix  du  Peuple  said : 

The  first  thing  to  do  before  going  out  on  strike  is  to 
cripple  all  the  machinery.  Then  the  contest  is  even  be- 
tween employer  and  worker,  for  the  cessation  of  work 
really  stops  all  life  in  the  capitalists'  camp.  Are  bakery 
workers  planning  to  go  on  strike?  Let  them  pour  in  the 
ovens  a  few  pints  of  petroleum  or  of  any  other  greasy  or 
pungent  matter.  After  that  soldiers  or  scabs  may  come  and 
bake  bread.  The  smell  will  not  come  out  of  the  tiles  for 
three  months.  Is  a  strike  in  sight  in  steel  mills?  Pour 
sand  or  emery  into  the  oil  cups. 

In  his  pamphlet  on  Syndicalism  and  the  Railroads, 
A.  Renault  gives  the  same  advice  to  railroaders : 

We  must  select  among  the  expert  workers  a  few  com- 
rades who,  knowing  every  detail  of  the  machinery,  will  find 
the  weak  spots  where  an  effective  blow  can  be  struck  while 
avoiding  all  stupid  destruction  of  material. 

In  1908,  the  Lyons  motormen  and  conductors 
poured  concrete  into  every  switch  of  the  street  rail- 
way before  going  on  strike;  the  same  year  the  em- 
ployes of  a  railroad  line  in  the  south  of  France  cut 
off  all  the  telegraph  and  signal  wires  and  removed 
the  spigots  of  all  the  water  tanks. 

In  Philadelphia,  garment  workers  modified  all  the 
patterns  in  their  shops  before  walking  out,  thus  mak- 
ing it  impossible  for  "  scabs  "  to  complete  the  jobs 
they  had  left  unfinished. 

In  1909,  a  confidential  circular  was  sent  out  to 


DIRECT  ACTION:    II.  SABOTAGE     47 

all  the  Post  Office,  Telegraph  and  Telephone  em- 
ployes of  France  ordering  them  to  "  sabotage  "  tele- 
graph and  telephone  wires  during  the  night  of  June  1 
as  a  protest  against  the  discharge  of  650  post  office 
employes. 

The  circular  explained  how  to  cut  off  live  wires 
without  running  the  risk  of  being  electrocuted  and 
emphasized  the  point  that  signal  wires  should  never 
be  tampered  with  so  as  not  to  cause  catastrophes  on 
the  railroads.  The  report  sent  in  by  one  of  the  se- 
cret sabotage  committees  will  give  the  measure  of  the 
"  saboteurs'  "  activity : 

Seventh  report  of  the  secret  revolutionary  groups  of 
Joinville  and  affiliated  branches;  list  of  telegraph  and  tele- 
phone wires  cut  off  as  a  protest  against  the  arrest  of  Com- 
rade Ingweiler,  the  prosecution  of  the  Bi-Metal  Workers 
and  the  sentences  imposed  on  July  25,  1910 : 

July  8  to  25,  Montesson,  Vesinet  and  Pont  du 

Pecq  district 78  lines 

July  25,  Melun  to  Montgeron 32    " 

July  25,  Corbeil  to  Draveil 24    " 

July  28,  P.  L.  M.  lines 87    " 


Total    221  lines 

Lines  cut  off  according  to  6  previous  reports. . . .  574    " 


795  lines 

Sebastien  Faure  and  Pouget  delivered  recently  on 
the  subject  of  "  technical  instruction  as  revolution's 
handmaid  "  two  addresses  from  which  we  quote  the 
following  extracts : 

The  electrical  industry  is  one  of  the  most  important  in- 
dustries, as  an  interruption  in  the  current  means  a  lack  of 


r4S  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

light  and  power  in  factories;  it  also  means  a  reduction  in 
the  means  of  transportation  and  a  stoppage  of  the  tele- 
graph and  telephone  systems. 

How  can  the  power  be  cut  off?  By  curtailing  in  the 
mine  the  output  of  the  coal  necessary  for  feeding  the  ma- 
chinery or  stopping  the  coal  cars  on  their  way  to  the  elec- 
trical plants.  If  the  fuel  reaches  its  destination  what  is 
simpler  than  to  set  the  pockets  on  fire  and  have  the  coal 
burn  in  the  yards  instead  of  the  furnaces?  It  is  child's 
play  to  put  out  of  work  the  elevators  and  other  automatic 
devices  which  carry  coal  to  the  fireroom. 

To  put  boilers  out  of  order  use  explosives  or  silicates  or  a 
plain  glass  bottle  which  thrown  on  the  glowing  coals  hinders 
the  combustion  and  clogs  up  the  smoke  exhausts.  You  can 
also  use  acids  to  corrode  boiler  tubes;  acid  fumes  will  ruin 
cylinders  and  piston  rods.  A  small  quantity  of  some  cor- 
rosive substance,  a  handful  of  emery  will  be  the  end  of  oil 
cups.  When  it  comes  to  dynamos  or  transformers,  short 
circuits  and  inversion  of  poles  can  be  easily  managed. 
Underground  cables  can  be  destroyed  by  fire,  water  or  ex- 
plosives, etc.,  etc. 

A  form  of  sabotage  which  is  beneficial  to  the  con- 
sumer is  called  in  French  "  la,  bouche  ouverte,"  the 
open  mouth.  In  the  practice  of  it,  the  workers,  re- 
gardless of  what  their  trade  or  occupation  may  be, 
refrain  from  any  misrepresentation.  Not  only  must 
they  answer  truthfully  all  questions  asked  by  custo- 
mers but  they  must  volunteer  all  information  which 
the  customer  should  possess  concerning  the  actual 
quality  or  quantity  of  the  goods  he  purchases. 

In  1908  the  Paris  Cooks'  Syndicate  called  the  pub- 
lic's attention  to  an  incident  which  had  taken  place  in 
one  of  the  best  known  restaurants.  On  June  1,  a 
chef  had  been  dismissed  for  refusing  to  cook  meat 
BO  decayed  that  it  constituted  positive  danger  to  the. 


DIEECT  ACTION:    II.  SABOTAGE     49 

patrons'  health.  Not  only  did  the  man  lose  his  posi- 
tion but  he  was  blacklisted  as  well.  The  cooks  de- 
cided then  and  there  to  acquaint  the  public  by  all 
available  means  with  the  frauds  they  had  to  practice 
in  obedience  to  their  employers'  orders. 

They  revealed  how  cray  fish  soup  (bisque)  was 
made  not  of  crayfish  meat  but  of  crayfish  and  lob- 
ster shells  left  on  plates,  which  were  finely  powdered 
and  sprayed  with  carmine;  deer  steak  was  made  of 
plain  beef  steeped  over  night  in  various  condiments ; 
in  some  houses  glasses,  forks,  spoons  and  knives  were 
wiped  off  with  the  soiled  napkins,  etc. 

Workers  employed  in  the  Paris  subway  practiced 
open-mouthed  sabotage  when  they  allowed  themselves 
to  be  interviewed  in  regard  to  frauds  in  building  ma- 
terials likely  to  result  in  serious  accidents.  Grocery 
clerks  had  posters  affixed  to  billboards  explaining  to 
housewives  how  they  were  cheated  and  made  to  pur- 
chase inferior  substitutes;  apothecary  clerks  revealed 
the  thievish  way  in  which  they  were  directed  to  fill 
prescriptions,  substituting  cheap  equivalents  for  high- 
priced  chemicals,  or  leaving  the  latter  out  altogether. 

Two  years  ago  the  Bank  Clerks  Congress  decided 
to  gather  all  possible  evidence  of  crooked  dealings 
taking  place  in  various  financial  establishments  and 
to  keep  that  incriminating  material  on  file  for  publi- 
cation whenever  they  would  wage  a  fight  for  better 
conditions. 

Besides  denouncing  abuses,  workers  are  instructed 
to  correct  them  whenever  this  is  within  their  power, 
workers  must  refuse  to  dilute  the  wines, 


50  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

cooks  must  use  so  much  margarine  that  it  becomes 
as  expensive  as  genuine  butter,  grocery  clerks  must 
never  shortweight  the  customers,  apothecary  clerks 
are  not  to  recommend  expensive  proprietary  drugs 
when  an  inexpensive  substitute  would  do  as  well,  nor 
must  they  omit  when  filling  prescriptions  any  high- 
priced  but  necessary  ingredient  whose  cost  is  borne  by 
their  employer. 

Obstructionism  is  a  form  of  sabotage  which  has  been 
practiced  more  frequently  by  railroaders  than  by  any 
other  class  of  workers.  It  was  first  applied  by  Aus- 
trian station  masters  to  such  good  effect  that  the  em- 
ployes soon  saw  the  advantage  of  imitating  their 
superiors.  In  1887  a  railroad  coupler  was  caught  be- 
tween two  freight  cars  and  terribly  mutilated.  The 
officials  of  the  road  disciplined  the  station  master  as 
some  of  the  rules  relative  to  coupling  had  not  been 
enforced.  Telegraph  orders  were  dispatched  to  all  sta- 
tion masters  calling  their  attention  to  the  various  reg- 
ulations the  observance  of  which  they  were  supposed 
to  insure. 

The  station  masters  obeyed  the  order.  The  result 
was  that  after  twenty-four  hours,  trains  were  stalled 
everywhere  and  freight  was  piling  up  in  stations. 
Something  had  to  be  done.  The  governing  board  of 
every  road  hastened  to  free  the  station  masters  from 
all  responsibility  in  the  case  of  accident  due  to  neglect 
of  certain  minor  rules. 

In  1905  obstruction  was  one  of  the  most  effective 
weapons  used  in  Italy  by  the  striking  railroaders. 
Here  are  some  of  the  scenes  described  by  newspaper 
reporters.  This  took  place  in  a  Rome  station : 


DIRECT  ACTION:    II.  SABOTAGE     51 

According  to  regulations  ticket  windows  must  be  open 
thirty  minutes  and  closed  five  minutes  before  the  departure 
of  a  train.  The  wicket  is  opened.  A  gentleman  offers  a 
ten  lire  piece  in  payment  for  a  ticket  worth  four  lire 
fifty.  The  ticket  agent  reads  to  him  an  article  of  the  regu- 
lations which  requests  passengers  to  present  the  exact 
amount  of  their  fare.  As  no  change  is  made  hardly  thirty 
tickets  have  been  sold  within  the  regulation  time.  The 
wicket  is  closed  five  minutes  before  train  time  with  a  mob 
of  would-be  passengers  who  cannot  pass  the  gates  for  lack 
of  tickets.  Don't  imagine,  however,  that  those  who  secured 
transportation  are  much  better  off.  They  are  within  the 
cars  but  the  train  does  not  move.  According  to  regulations 
a  lot  of  switching  has  been  done  which  has  stalled  several 
trains  500  meters  away.  Some  passengers,  furious,  leave 
the  cars  and  start  to  walk  to  the  station.  Employes  in 
strict  obedience  of  regulations  proffer  formal  charges 
against  them. 

We  are  now  in  Milan :  A  train  has  been  assembled  after 
an  hour  and  a  half's  work.  The  inspector  notices  in  the 
middle  of  the  train  an  old  ramshackle  car.  "Car  out  of 
order  1 "  and  the  train  is  cut  in  two  so  as  to  permit  the  re- 
moval of  the  objectionable  vehicle. 

In  Rome :  An  engineer  is  ordered  to  take  his  locomotive 
to  the  round-house.  He  refuses,  for  the  three  tail  lights 
prescribed  by  regulation  are  missing.  Lamps  are  sent 
for.  The  stock  clerk  refuses  to  deliver  them  without  a 
formal  order  signed  by  the  station  master.  .  .  . 

A  traveler  presents  a  pass  at  the  office  window. 

"Are  you  Mr.  So  and  So?" 

"  I  am." 

"  Can  you  prove  your  identity  through  any  official  docu- 
ments'?" 

"  No ! " 

"  Then  I  cannot  0.  K.  your  pass  unless,  according  to  the 
regulations,  you  bring  two  witnesses." 

In  Civita  Vecchia:  An  engineer  decides  a  few  minutes 
before  train  time  to  have  the  coal  in  his  engine's  tender 


52  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

weighed,  according  to  regulations,  then  being  in  doubt  as  to 
the  condition  of  his  manometer,  he  asks,  according  to  regu- 
lations, the  technical  chief  of  the  railroad  station  to  come 
and  confer  with  him.  Before  entering  the  cab  he  makes 
sure  that  cars  with  bumpers  alternate  with  bumperless  cars 
and  that  no  oiler,  coupler  or  lamp  tender  is  at  work  in, 
under  or  on  the  cars ;  finally  he  notices  that  the  steam  pres- 
sure is  only  four  and  according  to  regulations  no  train  must 
pull  out  of  a  station  until  the  hand  of  the  manometer  reg- 
isters a  pressure  of  five.  ...  At  the  next  station  the  bag- 
gage master  detains  the  train  for  twenty-five  minutes  while 
applying  rule  No.  739  which  requests  him  to  check  person- 
ally every  piece  of  baggage  before  it  is  loaded  on  his  car. 

The  various  syndicalist  writers  justify  the  first 
variety  of  sabotage  by  assimilating  labor,  as  capi- 
talist economists  are  fond  of  doing,  to  ordinary  mer- 
chandise. When  economic  conditions  compel  or  en- 
able dealers  to  raise  the  cost  of  merchandise  they  have 
their  choice  of  two  methods.  In  the  case  of  luxuries 
they  simply  demand  more  for  the  same  quality  or 
quantity  of  goods;  in  the  case  of  necessaries  of  life 
they  either  sell  the  same  amount  and  grade  at  a  higher 
price  or,  if  consumers  show  themselves  restive,  they 
sell  an  inferior  grade  and  a  smaller  quantity,  some- 
times concealed  through  clever  packing,  for  the  same 
amount  of  money. 

If  labor  is  a  merchandise  sold  in  the  open  market, 
workers  compelled  or  enabled  by  economic  conditions 
to  raise  their  prices  can  demand  more  money  in  ex- 
change for  their  goods,  or,  if  employers  show  unwill- 
ingness to  give  more  money  for  the  same  amount  of 
labor,  they  may  give  an  inferior  kind  of  labor  for  the 
same  amount  of  money. 


DIRECT  ACTION:    II.  SABOTAGE      53 

Employers  who  see  their  machinery  deteriorate  rap- 
idly and  who  cannot  dispose  of  damaged  goods  on 
satisfactory  terms  may,  after  a  while,  spend  on  sal- 
aries the  money  wasted  on  repairs  or  on  merchandise 
'which  has  to  be  taken  back. 

Sabotage  of  the  open-mouthed  type  being  always 
beneficial  to  the  ultimate  consumer  requires  no  apolo- 
gies. 

As  far  as  obstruction  goes  every  lawyer  handling  la- 
bor accident  cases  in  court  knows  that  very  few  work- 
ers or  workers'  families  suing  employers  for  damages 
ever  recover  a  cent  as  the  victim  is  usually  found  to 
have  violated  some  rule,  the  strict  observance  of  which 
would  have  probably  cost  him  his  position.  "No  man 
who  insisted  on  coupling  cars  as  railroad  regulations 
prescribe  it,  that  is  with  a  stick  of  wood  of  a  certain 
length,  would  ever  acquire  the  speed  which  is  ex- 
pected of  such  a  worker.  Should  he  lose  a  hand  while 
doing  the  coupling  in  a  speedy  and  efficient  way, 
that  is  without  a  stick,  he  cannot  recover  damages. 

Since  the  workers  by  violating  rules  not  only  save 
money  for  their  employers  but  outlaw  themselves  in 
case  of  accident,  it  is  only  natural  that  in  case  of 
strike  they  should  not  violate  regulations  at  their  own 
physical  and  financial  risk. 

We  quote  from  an  editorial  in  The  Industrial 
"Worker  (Spokane,  Wash.)  the  following  extracts 
which  present  very  forcibly  the  New  Unionist  view 
of  the  ethics  of  sabotage : 

Actions  which  might  be  classed  as  sabotage  are  used  by 
the  different  exploiting  and  professional  classes. 
.The  truck  farmer  packs  his  largest  fruits  and  vegetables 


54  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

upon  the  top  layer.  The  merchant  sells  inferior  articles  as 
"  something  just  as  good."  The  doctor  gives  "  bread  pills  " 
or  other  harmless  concoctions  in  cases  where  the  symptoms 
are  puzzling.  The  builder  uses  poorer  material  than  de- 
manded in  the  specifications.  The  manufacturer  adulterates 
foodstuffs  and  clothing.  All  these  are  for  the  purpose  of 
gaining  more  profits. 

Carloads  of  potatoes  were  destroyed  in  Illinois  recently; 
cotton  was  burned  in  the  southern  States;  coffee  was  de- 
stroyed by  the  Brazilian  planters;  barge  loads  of  onions 
were  dumped  overboard  in  California;  apples  are  left  to  rot 
on  the  trees  of  whole  orchards  in  Washington;  and  hun- 
dreds of  tons  of  foodstuffs  are  held  in  cold  storage  until 
rendered^ unfit  for  consumption.  All  to  raise  prices. 

Yet  it  is  exploiters  of  this  kind  who  are  loudest  in  con- 
demnation of  sabotage  when  it  is  used  to  benefit  the  work- 
ers. 

Some  forms  of  capitalist  sabotage  are  legalized,  others 
are  not.  But  whether  or  not  the  various  practices  are  sanc- 
tioned by  law,  it  is  evident  that  they  are  more  harmful  to 
society  as  a  whole  than  is  the  sabotage  of  the  workers. 

Capitalists  cause  imperfect  dams  to  be  constructed,  and 
devastating  floods  sweep  whole  sections  of  the  country. 
They  have  faulty  bridges  erected,  and  wrecks  cause  great 
loss  of  life.  They  sell  steamer  tickets,  promising  absolute 
security,  and  sabotage  the  life  saving  equipment  to  the 
point  where  hundreds  are  murdered,  as  witness  the  Titanic. 

The  General  Slocum  disaster  is  an  example  of  capitalist 
sabotage  on  the  life  preservers.  The  Iroquois  theater  fire  is 
an  example  of  sabotage  by  exploiters  who  assured  the  pub- 
lic that  the  fire-curtain  was  made  of  asbestos.  The  cases 
could  be  multiplied  indefinitely. 

These  capitalist  murderers  constitute  themselves  the  men- 
tors of  the  morals  of  those  slaves  who  "  have  nothing  to  lose 
but  their  chains."  Only  fools  will  take  their  ethics  from 
such  knaves.  Capitalist  opposition  to  sabotage  is  one  of  its 
highest  recommendations. 

.Capitalist  sabotage  aims  to  benefit  a  small  group  of  non- 


DIRECT  ACTION:    II.  SABOTAGE     55 

producers.  "Working  class  sabotage  seeks  to  help  the  wage 
•working  class  at  the  expense  of  parasites. 

The  frank  position  of  the  class  conscious  worker  is  that 
capitalist  sabotage  is  wrong  because  it  harms  the  workers; 
working  class  sabotage  is  right  because  it  aids  the  workers. 

Sabotage  is  a  direct  application  of  the  idea  that  property 
has  no  rights  that  its  creators  are  bound  to  respect.  Espe- 
cially is  this  true  when  the  creators  of  the  wealth  of  the 
world  are  in  hunger  and  want  amid  the  abundance  they 
have  produced,  while  the  idle  few  have  all  the  good  things 
of  life. 

The  open  advocacy  of  sabotage  and  its  widespread  use  13 
a  true  reflection  of  economic  conditions.  The  current  ethical 
code,  with  all  existing  laws  and  institutions,  is  based  upon 
private  property  in  production.  Why  expect  those  who 
have  no  stake  in  society,  as  it  is  now  constituted,  to  continue 
to  contribute  to  its  support  f 


CHAPTER 


LEAVING  aside  China,  where  until  recently  the  pos- 
session of  a  literary  degree  was  the  only  requisite  for 
the  obtainment  of  any  governmental  position,  we  must 
concede  that  intellectuals  the  world  over  have  assumed 
in  the  conduct  of  the  people's  affairs  an  importance 
in  no  way  commensurate  with  their  competence. 
Parliaments  are  filled  with  lawyers  whose  only  quali- 
fication for  representing  a  constituency  is  neither  a 
perfect  knowledge  of  the  voters'  needs  nor  special 
training  in  economics,  but  mere  fluency  of  speech. 

In  Europe,  especially  in  the  Latin  countries,  many 
physicians  and  teachers  share  with  lawyers  the 
profitable  privilege  of  speaking  in  behalf  of  the 
masses.  Radical  parties  have  been  as  careless  as 
conservative  parties  in  the  choice  of  their  representa- 
tives, being  obscurely  aware  that  a  man  sent  to  par- 
liament by  an  artificial  geographical  division  could  do 
little  good  or  little  harm,  whoever  he  was,  for  the 
manifold  interests  of  the  people  inhabiting  the  re- 
gion. In  Italy  a  physician  managed  to  have  him- 
self elected  to  parliament  on  the  anti-parliamentary 
platform  of  syndicalism.  Finally  "  radical  "  lawyers 
all  over  the  world  reap  a  bountiful  harvest  by  mana- 
ging the  legal  end  of  labor  disputes  and  taking  advan- 

56 


THE  INTELLECTUALS  57 

tage  of  their  clients'  ignorance  when  rendering  their 
bills.  The  profits  made  by  those  friends  of  the 
worker  can  be  easily  estimated  when  we  bear  in  mind 
that  certain  labor  groups  with  several  thousand  mem- 
bers pay  their  legal  adviser  a  fee  of  fifty  cents  per 
member ;  a  successful  radical  lawyer  often  earns  more 
than  a  successful  corporation  lawyer;  and  he  can  al- 
ways blame  unfair  capitalist  magistrates  for  the  cases 
he  loses. 

A  realization  of  the  sordid  and  insincere  role  played 
by  too  many  intellectuals  in  labor  politics  has  finally 
aroused  among  the  workers  an  instinctive  distrust  and 
scorn  of  whoever  is  not  a  manual  worker.  This  re- 
action is  naturally  bound  to  carry  the  workers  a  little 
too  far  and  to  cause  them  to  ostracize  unjustly  many 
men  from  the  liberal  professions  who  are  also  wage 
slaves  and  as  ruthlessly  exploited  as  any  mill  hand 
ever  was.  For  we  would  oppose  to  the  definition 
of  a  worker  by  the  French  "  manualist "  Tolain : 
"  A  man  who  works  with  his  hands,"  Liebknecht's 
definition,  "  A  man  who  does  not  live  from  the  labor 
of  another." 

Even  in  France,  the  paradise  of  "  friends  of  labor," 
the  reaction  of  the  workers  against  the  professional 
"  thinker  "  is  nothing  new.  When  the  Paris  section 
of  the  International  was  organized  in  1865  many  in- 
tellectuals applied  for  membership,  among  them 
Henri  Martin,  the  historian,  Gustave  Chaudey,  who 
had  collaborated  with  Proudhon,  Corbon,  former  vice- 
president  of  the  1848  Constituante  and  Jules  Simon. 
Two  years  later  in  1867,  one  of  the  burning  questions 
which  the  International  had  to  consider  at  its  Lau- 


58  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

sanne  congress,  was  the  part  which  "  intellectuals 
and  capitalists"  should  be  allowed  to  play  in  the 
movement  The  French  delegates,  Fribourg  and 
Tolain,  offered  a  motion  according  to  which,  while 
intellectuals  were  welcome  as  members  of  the  Inter- 
national, none  but  manual  workers  should  be  allowed 
to  participate  in  the  work  of  congresses.  Fribourg 
•aid: 

It  might  happen  some  day  that  the  workers'  congress 
would  be  made  up  almost  entirely  of  economists,  journal- 
ists, lawyers,  employers,  etc.,  which  would  be  a  ridiculous 
state  of  affairs,  likely  to  ruin  the  International. 

Tolain  added: 

We  bear  no  ill  will  to  anyone,  but  under  the  present  condi- 
tions we  must  consider  as  our  enemies  every  member  of  a 
class  which  enjoys  special  privileges  on  account  of  its 
wealth  or  its  diplomas.  We  the  workers  have  been  criticised 
often  enough  for  entrusting  others  with  the  care  of  our  sal- 
vation, for  relying  over  much  upon  the  state.  We  are  no 
longer  willing  to  incur  that  criticism;  the  workers  will  take 
care  of  themselves  and  ask  for  no  one's  protection. 

The  French  motion  was  defeated  and  the  English 
and  Swiss  motion  was  passed :  "  Intellectual  work- 
ers," it  said  in  part,  "  are  quite  as  deserving  and  can 
prove  as  deep  a  devotion  to  the  cause  as  manual  work- 
ers." 

Reformists  of  all  hues  have  always  needed  and 
desired  greatly  the  help  of  intellectual  allies.  Good 
speakers  and  skilled  writers  can  do  much  to  convince 
the  capitalists  of  the  necessity  of % "  granting "  re- 
forms to  the  workers.  They  can  either  merely  ex- 


AND  THE  INTELLECTUALS  59 

cite  their  sympathy  or,  by  showing  them  how  certain 
forms  of  the  workers'  exploitation  can  be  injurious 
to  the  health  or  the  prosperity  of  the  community, 
strike  fear  into  their  heart. 

Thus  intellectuals  act  as  unofficial  ambassadors  be- 
tween workers  and  employers  or  between  the  worker 
and  the  state  or  government.  Socialists,  even  of  an 
advanced  type  are  bound  to  feel  a  debt  of  gratitude 
to  such  persons  as  G.  B.  Shaw,  H.  G.  Wells,  John 
Galsworthy,  Anatole  France,  Maxim  Gorky,  Haupt- 
mann,  Ada  Negri  and  Jack  London,  who,  on  one  hand 
picture  vividly  the  sufferings  of  the  workers  and  on 
the  other  dissipate  popular  misconceptions  of  social- 
ism and  make  radical  theories  clearer  and  more  ac- 
ceptable to  the  conservative  reader. 

As  long  as  the  workers,  uncultured  and  inarticu- 
late, were  pleading  for  the  capitalist's  mercy,  the  in- 
tellectual in  parliament,  in  journalism,  in  literature, 
in  art,  was,  so  to  speak,  labor's  social  secretary.  Di- 
rect actionists,  however,  can  well  scorn  such  allies 
while  recognizing  the  amount  of  valuable  pioneer 
work  they  once  accomplished.  The  many  intellectu- 
als who,  in  spite  of  the  diminivshed  prestige  which, 
will  be  their  share,  have  been  attracted  to  the  syndi- 
calist movement,  express  themselves  on  this  point 
in  unmistakable  terms.  Sorel  says : 

Professional  intellectuals,  that  is,  those  who  make  it  a 
business  to  think  for  other  classes  which  may  remain  un- 
cultured, can  only  lead  a  civilization  to  its  ruin,  for  their 
thought  is  never  refreshed  at  the  live  fount  of  productive 
activity.  The  intellectual  feudalism  admired  by  Renan  is 
destructive  of  every  idea  of  justice,  for  it  reduces  the  pro- 


'60  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

ducer  to  the  rank  of  a  vassal  and  submits  civil  society  to  a 
foreign  rule. 

The  democracy  of  property  holders  clings  with  the  energy 
of  despair  to  the  doctrine  of  special  aptitude  and  does  its 
best  to  exploit  the  superstitious  respect  which  the  masses 
have  for  knowledge.  ...  It  multiplies  degrees  and  tries  to 
make  a  mandarin  out  of  the  most  insignificant  man  of  let- 
ters; the  parasites  as  a  class  profess  an  unbounded  admira- 
tion for  science  .  .  .  they  act  as  heralds  for  the  high  priests 
of  science,  ask  for  big  pensions  for  them  and  hope  by  such 
means  to  conquer  the  respect  of  simple  people,  besides  de- 
riving therefrom  large  personal  profits.  .  .  .  Experience 
shows,  however,  that  great  managerial  qualities  are  not 
exceptional  and  are  frequently  found  among  manual  work- 
ers. ...  In  France  the  intellectuals  claim  that  their  place 
is  in  parliament  and  that  in  case  of  victory  dictatorial  pow- 
ers should  be  conferred  upon  them  as  their  due.  It  is 
against  this  parliamentary  dictatorship  of  the  people  that 
syndicalists  protest.  .  .  . 

The  true  calling  of  the  intellectuals  seems  to  be  the  ex- 
ploitation of  politics;  the  calling  of  the  politician  is  very 
similar  to  that  of  the  prostitute  and  does  not  require  any 
industrial  ability.  Do  not  talk  to  those  people  of  removing 
the  traditional  forms  of  state.  .  .  .  They  want  to  convince 
the  worker  that  it  is  his  interest  to  elect  them  into  power 
and  that  he  should  accept  the  theory  of  special  aptitudes 
which  places  the  workers  under  the  direction  of  the  pol- 
iticians. 

Edouard  Berth  deplores  the  importance  which  in- 
tellectuals attach  to  "  talk,"  at  times  when  action  of 
the  most  energetic  type  would  be  the  only  thing 
likely  to  bring  about  results. 

The  intellectual  considers  fighting  as  absurd  when  parley- 
ing is  so  very  easy;  on  the  thought  market  where  he  acts  as 
curb  broker,  the  sentiment  of  honor  is  as  little  appreciated 
as  it  is  011  the  stock  exchange;  an  intellectual  is  a  trader 


AND  THE  INTELLECTUALS  61 

and  you  cannot  expect  from  him  warlike  heroism.  We 
know  that  traders  and  intellectuals  take  the  same  attitude 
towards  strikes  as  they  take  towards  war.  In  the  course  of 
every  strike  the  papers  are  full  of  careful  statistics  of  the 
workers'  losses.  .  .  .  Arbitration,  systematized,  even  com- 
pulsory, the  intellectuals  say,  would  be  preferable.  .  .  .  In- 
tellectuals are  great  social  pacifists. 

Enrico  Leone  demands  the  abolition  of  the  privi- 
leged class  called  the  intellectual  class.  Democracy 
professes  to  open  careers  to  merit ;  in  reality  it  opens 
them  to  capacity,  due  to  birth,  to  inherited  property 
or  culture,  the  monopolies  of  a  class.  He  points  out 
the  significant  fact  that  rulers  receive  even  from 
democratic  countries  degrees  and  titles  without  un- 
dergoing any  examinations.  "  The  socialism  of  the 
intellectuals  would  favor  the  continuance  of  this 
privilege;  it  would  establish  a  kind  of  mandarin 
hierarchy  in  which  everyone  would  receive  positions 
according  to  the  diplomas  he  possessed." 

Leone  believes  with  Sorel  that  a  majority  of  the 
intellectuals  are  useless ;  they  are  unproductive  work- 
ers, political  and  administrative  officials  employed  by 
the  State,  members  of  the  liberal  professions,  more 
or  less  dependent  on  the  capitalist  class  or,  at  best, 
students  of  art  and  science,  which  should  not  be  the 
monopoly  of  a  class  but  accessible  to  all  classes. 
The  intellectuals  are  steadily  claiming  more  than 
their  share.  Every  new  idea  which  permeates  the 
working  masses  is  credited  to  them  and  "  instead  of 
remaining  faithful  soldiers  in  the  rank  like  volun- 
teers in  a  war  of  independence,  the  intellectuals  de- 
mand the  epaulets  of  captains." 


62  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

What  would  become  of  art  and  science  in  the  in- 
dustrial commonwealth  brought  into  being  by  the 
victory  of  the  New  Unionism  ?  Many  fighters  in  the 
ranks  of  the  New  Unionism  refuse  even  to  consider 
the  question  or  dodge  the  issue  by  declaring  that 
artists  and  scientists  could  only  belong  to  the  move- 
ment as  members  of  some  industrial  union.  This  is 
too  simple  a  way  of  disposing  of  art  and  sciences 
which  are  essential  elements  of  any  human  civiliza- 
tion and  would  be  the  only  means  of  individual  ex- 
pression after  the  competitive  struggle  was  elimi- 
nated. 

The  "  sportive  "  instinct,  a  desire  to  excel,  linked 
in  no  way  with  the  idea  of  remuneration  could  not 
nor  should  be  repressed.  Many  New  Unionists 
realize  that  the  results  of  such  activity  as  would  be 
directed  along  art  channels  by  the  desire  to  excel 
would  be  as  beneficial  to  mankind  as  the  products  of 
any  of  the  so-called  useful  trades.  Only  science  and 
art  would  first  have  to  undergo  a  thorough  trans- 
formation. For  the  art  of  to-day  is,  according  to 
Sorel's  words,  "  a  mere  residuum  bequeathed  to  us 
by  an  aristocratic  society."  If  the  artist  with  his 
capricious  disposition  is  almost  completely  the  oppo- 
site of  the  worker  "it  is  because  the  habits  of  life  of 
the  modern  artist  formed  in  imitation  of  the  life  of  a 
carousing  aristocracy  are  in  no  way  essential  and 
must  be  blamed  upon  a  tradition  which  has  been 
fatal  to  many  men  of  genius." 

To  Sorel  the  art  of  the  future  appears  as  "  an 
adornment  of  life  which  will  demonstrate  the  neces- 
sity of  a  careful,  conscientious,  skilled  execution. 


AND  THE  INTELLECTUALS  63 

.  .  .  the  means  through  which  the  merge  of  intel- 
lectual labor  with  manual  labor  will  become  patent  to 
the  workers." 

The  progress  of  art  is  not  dependent  upon  the  ex- 
istence of  a  privileged  artist  class.  We  do  not  even 
know  the  names  of  the  great  artists  of  the  Gothic 
period.  Among  the  obscure  stonecutters  who  carved 
statues  for  the  great  cathedrals  there  were  men  of 
considerable  talent  who  apparently  never  emerged 
from  the  anonymous  masses  of  the  workers;  they 
nevertheless  produced  masterpieces. 

A  striving  for  perfection,  for  "  the  highest  form 
of  production,"  will  manifest  itself  regardless  of  any 
personal,  concrete,  immediate  and  adequate  return 
and  will  insure  the  progress  of  the  world. 

Thus  speak  the  philosophers  and  theorists  of  the 
New  Unionism.  It  is  interesting  to  note  how  little 
their  conclusions  and  forecasts  differ  from  those  of 
practical  workers  like  Pouget  and  Pataud.  These 
two  powerful  leaders  of  the  "  extremists "  in  the 
General  Confederation  of  Labor  gave  a  good  deal  of 
thought  to  the  "  intellectual  question  "  and  the  fol- 
lowing is  a  resume  of  their  statements  on  the  sub- 
ject: 

Many  intellectuals,  Pouget  and  Pataud  think,  will  greet 
.with  joy  the  dawn  of  the  new  era.  Among  them  there  will 
be  some  for  whom  the  great  change  will  mean  a  distinct 
loss,  social  or  financial.  Even  those,  however,  will  welcome 
the  new  order,  for  their  talent  is  stifled  in  a  capitalist  so- 
ciety. The  material  profit  they  derive  from  it  could  not 
compensate  them  for  the  disgust  with  which  their  bourgeois 
environment  fills  them. 

Men  of  the  very  first  rank  in  literature  and  science,  re- 


M  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

tainers  of  the  capitalist  system,  despise  it  so  heartily  that  its 
downfall  will  seem  to  them  like  a  deliverance.  Their  con- 
tribution to  the  constructive  work  of  the  post-revolutionary 
period  will  be  the  reorganization  of  the  educational  system 
and  of  the  liberal  professions. 

Mere  knowledge  will  not  constitute  a  claim  to  a  larger 
remuneration.  Whoever  accumulates  knowledge  is  indebted 
for  its  acquisition  to  his  teachers,  to  the  discoveries  made  by 
the  preceding  generations,  in  a  word  to  his  total  environ- 
ment. Furthermore  all  classes  of  men  are  equally  indis- 
pensable to  one  another  and  a  physician  is  neither  more  nor 
less  necessary  to  bakers,  masons  and  sewer  diggers  than 
bakers,  masons  and  sewer  diggers  are  to  a  physician.  "While 
some  professional  men  may  find  themselves  poorer  in  social 
prestige,  they  will  from  a  strictly  professional  point  of  view 
find  themselves  overwealthy. 

Scientific  organizations  will  have  at  their  disposal  a  mag- 
nificent equipment,  perfect  laboratories  and  all  that  is  nec- 
essary for  valuable  experimentation. 

Literary  and  dramatic  works  will  be  produced  by  unions 
of  writers,  journalists,  etc.  The  daily  newspaper  will  of 
course  assume  an  entirely  new  shape  and  may  be  super- 
seded by  contrivances  for  the  distribution  of  illustrated 
news.  Subscriptions  to  the  daily  news  supply  shall  be  paid 
for  by  means  of  "  luxury  tickets."  Printers'  associations 
will  undertake  the  publication  of  novels,  poems,  books  of 
history  or  travel  of  evident  value.  In  doubtful  cases,  the 
author  himself  would  have  to  guarantee  the  initial  expense 
by  paying  a  certain  amount  in  "  luxury  tickets."  Should 
his  writings  prove  a  success,  he  might  be  excused  from  tak- 
ing any  part  in  the  work  of  social  production  for  certain 
periods  of  time,  thus  being  able  to  devote  himself  entirely 
to  the  preparation  of  his  next  masterpiece,  etc. 

There  is  no  doubt  in  the  writer's  mind  that  the 
complete  elimination  of  the  arts  from  the  fighting 
methods  of  the  New  Unionism  will  prove  a  boon  for 


AND  THE  INTELLECTUALS  65 

the  arts.  The  majority  of  radicals  debase  art  as 
ruthlessly  as  conservatives  do  by  making  it  the  hand- 
maid of  their  theories.  They  profess  infinite  scorn 
for  the  artist  who  does  not  take  any  form  of  the  class 
struggle  as  an  inspiration  for  his  work,  thus  placing 
quite  a  severe  limitation  upon  symphonic  composers 
and  architects,  among  others. 

It  is  pleasant  to  record  that  the  Ghent  workers 
have  built  a  studio  for  young  Van  Biesbroeck,  a 
sculptor  whose  work  reflects  the  struggles  of  laboring 
Belgium,  and  that  the  Genoa  dockers  have  pur- 
chased out  of  the  funds  of  their  union  The  Long- 
shoreman by  Constantin  Meunier.  The  only  dis- 
turbing feature  about  it  is  that  the  Ghent  and  Genoa 
workers  were  admiring  not  so  much  the  two  sculp- 
tors' talent  as  the  subjects  of  their  statues  —  modern 
workingmen  —  that  is,  types  which  true  revolution- 
ists wish,  not  to  perpetuate  but  to  do  away  with 
through  a  better  social  adjustment. 

Thus  prejudiced  radicals  have  encouraged  the 
gaudiest  type  of  illustrations,  the  crudest  sculpture, 
the  talkiest  plays,  the  most  incredible  fiction,  the 
least  poetic  doggerel  for  the  sake  of  the  radical 
tendencies  those  productions  expressed  or  seemed  to 
express.  The  unfortunate  artist  escapes  the  capi- 
talist tyranny  to  fall  a  victim  to  the  radical's  dis- 
torted sense  of  art.  No  one  can  tell  what  fate  is  re- 
served to  pure  art  and  pure  science  when  the  New 
Unionism  triumphs.  At  least  while  it  is  struggling 
to  gain  a  foothold  it  will  not  enslave  the  intellect. 

Much  as  New  Unionists,  however,  are  justified  in 
ignoring  the  intellectuals,  they^  should  not  adopt  too 


66  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

scornful  an  attitude  towards  art  and  science.  The 
ideally  beautiful  and  ideally  useful  will  become  the 
best  incentive  in  the  new  system  of  society  and  be- 
sides will  be  more  potent  than  any  other  force  in 
purging  the  worker's  mentality  of  all  the  grossness 
and  sordidness  forced  into  it  by  his  capitalist  masters 
during  long  years  of  toiL 


CHAPTER  ^ 

THE    NEW    UNIONISM    IN    FR1ANCE,:      BEVOLUTIONABY 
SYNDICIAXJSM 

WBITEKS  on  syndicalism  generally  state  that  the 
French  Confederation  of  Labor  was  the  first  expo- 
nent of  the  New  Unionism.  They  overlook  the  fact 
that  the  English  Chartists  formulated  almost  every 
aim  of  the  New  Unionists  in  the  early  part  of  the  19th 
century.  In  this  country  we  find  the  Western  Labor 
Union  upholding  the  same  principles  several  years 
before  the  French  Confederation  was  organized. 

The  strike  of  the  American  Railway  Union  in  1894 
is  a  fair  illustration  of  the  New  Unionist  tactics  ap- 
plied to  one  industry.  The  Western  Federation  of 
Miners  also  conceived  the  idea  of  organizing  all  the 
workers  of  the  mining  towns  into  a  single  organiza- 
tion, in  order  to  carry  on  more  effectively  their  fight 
against  the  mine  owners  in  the  various  mountain 
States.  The  Chartist  movement,  however,  collapsed 
very  early  and  it  was  not  until  1909  that  the  Indus- 
trial Workers  of  the  World  whose  advent  had  been 
prepared  by  the  Western  Labor  Union  and  the  West- 
ern Federation  of  Miners  became  an  important  factor 
in  the  labor  world. 

The  French  Confederation  of  Labor  or,  as  it  is 
currently  designated,  the  C.  G.  T.  (Confederation 

Generate  du  Travail)  was  not  organized  until  1902 

67 


68  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

but  the  spirit  of  New  Unionism  had  begun  to  mani- 
fest itself  in  France  many  years  before. 

In  March,  1867,  on  the  occasion  of  the  tailors' 
strike,  the  French  section  of  the  International  showed 
itself  rather  hostile  to  the  strikers,  explaining  its  at- 
titude thus :  "  As  the  strikers  employed  in  fashion- 
able shops  at  a  high  wage  refuse  to  concern  themselves 
with  the  pitiable  condition  of  the  workers  in  the 
ready  made  clothing  shops  the  International  couldn't 
sympathize  with  them." 

When  in  1869  the  Elbceuf  woolen  workers  and  in 
1870  the  Creusot  steel  workers,  went  on  strike,  many 
unions  in  different  trades  showed  their  spirit  of  sol- 
idarity by  contributing  to  the  strike  fund. 

After  the  Commune,  France  witnessed  a  severe  re- 
action against  labor  associations.  The  National  As- 
sembly passed  a  law  penalizing  all  attempts  at  or- 
ganizing the  workers.  It  is  therefore  useless  for  us  to 
review  the  history  of  French  syndicates  before  March 
21,  1884,  when  a  law  was  passed  "  authorizing  all 
workers,  laborers  or  employers  to  create  temporary 
or  permanent  associations  for  the  defense  and  study 
of  their  professional,  economic,  commercial  and  agri- 
cultural interests." 

This  law  merely  sanctioned  an  order  of  things  es- 
tablished in  the  teeth  of  ferocious  reaction.  While 
it  recognized  the  legal  existence  of  the  syndicates  or 
trade  unions,  it  aimed  in  reality  at  damming  up 
the  revolutionary  current  in  motion  among  the  la- 
boring masses.  For  as  early  as  the  year  1879  the 
Marseilles  congress  had  decided  to  study  the  General 
Strike. 


EEVOLUTIONAEY  SYNDICALISM        69 

Various  kinds  of  syndicates  or  trade  unions  began 
to  spring  up  all  over  France  and  in  1886,  the  Lyons 
congress  approved  the  organization  of  the  "  Federa- 
tion of  Syndicates  and  Corporative  Groups  of 
France."  The  new  organism  was  little  more,  how- 
ever, than  an  electoral  machine  for  the  labor  party. 

!New  combinations  of  unions  were  formed  in  more 
or  less  open  opposition  to  the  Federation's  policy. 
In  1887  the  Paris  municipality  placed  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  local  unions  a  building  where  all  crafts 
could  meet  and  discuss  their  common  interests  and 
which  was  the  first  Bourse  du  Travail  or  Labor  Ex- 
change. A  dozen  cities  or  industrial  centers  fol- 
lowed the  example  set  by  the  capital. 

Socialists  set  to  work  at  uniting  all  the  Bourses  in 
a  common  effort.  In  February,  1892,  the  Federa- 
tion of  Exchanges  was  officially  created  and  became 
a  powerful  rival  of  the  Federation  of  Syndicates. 
At  the  Marseilles  congress  in  September,  1892,  the 
Bourses  immediately  revealed  themselves  as  militant 
organisms.  The  congress  voted  by  acclamation  a  res- 
olution drafted  by  Aristide  Briand  and  which  read  in 
part: 

Only  a  revolution  can  give  us  the  economic  freedom  and 
the  material  welfare  demanded  by  the  most  elementary  prin- 
ciples of  natural  justice  .  .  .;  the  workers,  however,  have 
never  derived  any  advantage  from  bloody  insurrections  .  .  . 
which  give  the  ruling  classes  an  opportunity  to  drown  so- 
cial demands  in  the  workers'  blood  .  .  .;  among  the  peace- 
ful and  lawful  means  .  .  .  there  is  a  universal  and  simul- 
taneous suspension  of  the  producing  activity,  that  is  to  say 
the  general  strike. 


70  THE  KEW  UNIONISM 

The  Federation  of  Syndicates  at  its  next  congress 
entered  a  formal  protest  against  the  adoption  of  such 
a  resolution.  Encouraged  by  these  differences  within 
the  ranks  of  labor,  the  authorities  decided  to  close  the 
Paris  Labor  Exchange. 

At  the  Nantes  Labor  congress  held  in  1894  the 
Briand  motion  coming  up  once  more  for  discussion 
was  endorsed  by  sixty-five  votes  against  thirty-seven 
and  the  parliamentary  section  of  the  congress  dom- 
inated by  the  Guesdists  withdrew  from  the  hall.  The 
Federation  of  Syndicates  was  wiped  out  by  that  de- 
feat due  to  the  antipolitical  agitation  of  young  Pel- 
loutier. 

To  Fernand  Pelloutier  more  than  to  any  other 
leader  is  due  the  present  revolutionary  connotation 
of  the  word  syndicalism.  In  the  course  of  his  short 
life  (1867-1901),  he  showed  himself  an  unremitting 
foe  of  parliamentary  action.  In  1897,  he  coined  the 
term  which  now  sums  up  the  methods  of  New  Union- 
ism, "  Direct  Action." 

Pelloutier  held  that  modern  socialism  must  be 
founded  upon  an  absolute  cleavage  between  classes  and 
must  give  up  all  hopes  of  a  social  regeneration  through 
political  means.  He  considered  the  Labor  Exchanges 
as  the  most  perfect  medium  of  expression  of  the 
workers'  desiderata.  He  wrote : 

We  must  carry  on  more  methodically  and  more  stub- 
bornly than  ever  the  work  of  intellectual,  administrative  and 
technical  training  necessary  to  fit  a  community  of  free  indi- 
viduals for  existence.  .  .  .  We  must  demonstrate  to  the 
workers  by  a  series  of  experiments  conducted  in  their  midst, 
that  self-government  by  themselves  is  possible  and,  also,  give 


REVOLUTIONARY  SYNDICALISM  '    '71' 

them  weapons  against  the  corrupting  suggestions  of  capital- 
ism, by  instructing  them  as  to  the  necessity  of  a  revolution. 

Fernand  Pelloutier  did  his  best  to  gather  the  an- 
archists into  the  syndicates.  He  showed  them  how 
they  could  carry  out  practically  the  social  war  of 
which  they  were  constantly  speaking;  those  new  re- 
cruits taught  their  coworkers  not  to  shrink  from  di- 
rect action;  thus  far  the  socialists  had  always  shown 
themselves  apologetic  in  regard  to  strikes;  the  men 
from  "  the  party  of  the  street "  held  that  strikes  were 
mere  incidents  in  the  class  war ;  trade  union  methods 
became  discredited. 

All  his  life  Pelloutier  adhered  to  this  militant  pol- 
icy. When  Millerand  came  forward  with  a  pro- 
gramme of  reforms,  Pelloutier  attacked  savagely  what 
he  called  "  the  half-baked  projects  of  that  self-styled 
socialist."  Although  suffering  from  tuberculosis  in 
an  advanced  stage  he  did  not  hesitate  in  the  last  years 
of  his  life  to  court  persecution.  His  book  La,  vie 
ouvriere  en  France  called  upon  his  head  governmental 
thunder  and  he  died  a  pauper  in  1901. 

The  congress  of  Limoges,  in  1895,  saw  the  establish- 
ment of  the  first  G.  G.  T.  The  syndicates  decided 
to  form  national  federations  and  to  unite  themselves 
anew  in  a  confederation ;  the  C.  G.  T.  proceeded  im- 
mediately to  shut  its  doors  to  politicians  by  declaring 
that  it  would  keep  itself  aloof  from  any  political  af- 
filiation. 

At  every  succeeding  congress  —  Tours,  1896,  Tou- 
louse, 1897  (when  a  committee  on  sabotage  was  first 
appointed  and  sabotage  endorsed  by  the  Confedera- 


fra  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

tion),  Rennes,  1898,  Paris,  1900,  Lyons,  1901  —  ef- 
forts were  made  to  unite  the  Federation  of  Labor 
Exchanges  and  the  C.  G.  T.  At  Montpellier  in  1902 
this  fusion  was  accomplished. 

The  Montpellier  congress  appointed  twenty-five 
delegates  to  settle  the  differences  between  the  two 
Federations.  A  compromise  was  reached :  The  Con- 
federation was  to  consist  of  two  distinct  sections :  on 
one  side  the  Federation  of  Trades  and  Industries,  on 
the  other  the  Federation  of  Exchanges,  the  aims  of 
both  sections  being  harmonized  by  a  confederal  com- 
mittee. 

Besides  a  few  modifications  of  detail  the  policy  of 
the  Confederation  did  not  change  from  1902  to  1906. 
In  1906  a  decision  was  taken  which  defined  unequivo- 
cally the  attitude  of  the  Confederation.  Without 
excluding  any  of  the  affiliated  craft  federations  the 
Confederation  decided  at  the  Amiens  congress  to  ad- 
mit in  the  future  only  industrial  federations.  Thus 
the  Confederation  pledged  itself  to  a  frankly  indus- 
trialist policy. 

All  shades  of  opinions,  however,  are  represented  in 
the  Confederal  Committee.  Like  the  French  parlia- 
ment it  is  divided  up  into  a  Eight,  a  Center,  a  Left 
and  an  Extreme  Left. 

The  party  of  the  Right  includes  the  anti-revolution- 
ists and  independents,  leaders  of  the  Federation  of  the 
Printing  Trade  and  also  the  Guesdists,  anti-milita- 
ristic and  opposed  to  the  General  Strike,  who  lead 
the  Federation  of  Textile  workers.  The  Center  is 
made  up  mostly  of  railroadmen  dominated  by, 
Jaures'  ideas.  To  the  Left  belong  the  Simon  pure 


REVOLUTIONABY  SYNDICALISM       *t$ 

syndicalists  (les  purs}  led  by  Pouget,  Griffuehles, 
Jouhaux,  and  the  editorial  board  of  La  Voix  du  Peu* 
pie,  organ  of  the  C.  G.  T.  Further  to  the  Left,  led 
by  Yvetot,  sit  the  anti-militarists,  whose  opinion  was 
mirrored  by  Herve's  paper  La  Guerre  Sociale  before 
Herve  declared  himself  for  parliamentary  action. 
Finally  there  are  a  few  anarchists  whose  organ  is 
Jean  Grave's  Les  Temps  Nouveaux.  It  is  the  Left 
which  has  steadily  directed  the  destinies  of  the  Con- 
federation since  the  fusion  of  1902.  The  revolution- 
ary wing  carried  two  signal  victories  at  the  Amiens 
congress  in  1906  and  at  the  Marseilles  congress  in 
1908. 

One  thousand  syndicates  represented  at  the  Amiens 
congress  refused  to  enter  into  relations  with  the  So- 
cialist party  which  they  considered  as  altogether  too 
conservative ;  by  834  votes  against  thirty-four  a  reso- 
lution was  adopted  pledging  the  Confederation  to  the 
orthodox  syndicalist  programme:  to  bring  about 
through  the  general  strike  the  expropriation  of  the 
capitalists  and  to  reorganize  society  upon  the  basis  of 
the  syndicate  which  from  a  unit  of  resistance  would 
transform  itself  into  an  organ  of  production  and  dis- 
tribution. 

At  the  Marseilles  congress,  6YO  syndicates  against 
406  pledged  the  C.  G.  T.  to  anti-militarism  and  to 
rebellion  in  case  of  war. 

Then  it  was  that  Messrs.  Pugliesi-Conti  and  Paul 
Deschanel  endeavored  to  have  the  Confederation  dis- 
solved as  illegal.  The  government  realized  that  such 
action  would  have  only  temporary  consequences  as 
far  as  the  Confederation  was  concerned  and  that, 


74  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

furthermore,  it  might  precipitate  a  civil  war.  And 
the  Confederation  was  left  in  peace  ever  afterward. 

The  organization  of  the  C.  G.  T.  seems  at  first 
glance  to  be  extremely  complex.  The  unit  of  or- 
ganization is  the  syndicate  or  craft  union.  In  every 
city  and  town  the  various  craft  unions  combine  and 
meet  in  a  building  placed  at  their  disposal  by  the 
municipality  and  called  Bourse  du  Travail  or  Labor 
Exchange.  Certain  municipalities,  however,  have 
attempted  to  exploit  the  syndicates  for  political  pur- 
poses and  therefore,  in  order  to  retain  their  inde- 
pendence, the  syndicates  maintain  in  such  cases,  be- 
sides a  Labor  Exchange  another  organization  called 
Union  of  Syndicates.  Both  have  the  same  member- 
ship and  the  same  officers;  the  work  of  administra- 
tion is  carried  on  at  the  Exchange ;  the  work  of  agita- 
tion at  the  Union  of  Syndicates.  When  the  Exchange 
is  allowed  perfect  political  freedom  by  the  municipal- 
ity, it  is  affiliated  with  the  C.  G.  T.  In  the  contrary 
case  it  is  the  Union  which  is  affiliated  with  the  C.  G.  T. 
Besides  being  free  employment  agencies  for  their 
members,  the  Exchanges  help  workers  out  of  work, 
supply  them  with  free  transportation  to  parts  of  the 
country  where  labor  is  scarce,  organize  courses  in 
technical  instruction  and  give  free  legal  advice.  They 
also  carry  on,  when  unhampered  by  the  municipality, 
the  work  of  organization  and  propaganda. 

The  Exchanges  of  the  south  of  France  have  propa- 
gated the  syndicalist  idea  among  the  agricultural 
workers  of  the  region  and  organized  many  syndicates 
of  wine  growers.  The  Bourges  Exchange  organized 
the  lumbermen  of  central  Trance.  The  Brest  Ex- 


REVOLUTIONARY  SYNDICALISM       75 

change  triumphed  over  Brittany's  stubborn  resistance 
to  all  progress  in  matters  of  labor  organization. 

The  work  of  the  local  Exchanges  is  centralized  by 
the  Federation  of  Exchanges.  The  Federation  of 
Syndicates  centralizes  the  work  of  the  craft  and  in- 
dustrial unions.  The  industrialist  form,  however, 
will  soon  displace  all  others  for,  as  we  mentioned  be- 
fore, the  O.  G.  T.  while  leaving  to  the  older  organiza- 
tions their  autonomy,  no  longer  admits  to  its  member- 
ship any  organization  which  is  not  conducted  along 
industrial  lines. 

The  federations  of  industries  are  as  yet  far  from 
being  of  a  uniform  type.  Some  are  administered  by 
a  federal  committee  made  up  of  one  delegate  for  each 
affiliated  syndicate.  To  this  type  belongs  the  feder- 
ations of  the  alimentation  of  the  leather  industry,  of 
the  metal  industry.  Then  there  is  the  centralized 
type  to  which  belongs  the  Federation  of  the  Printing 
Trade;  it  is  administered  by  a  central  committee 
elected  for  several  years  on  the  American  ticket  sys- 
tem. 

Finally  there  are  the  National  Syndicates  which 
seem  to  be  at  present  the  only  lawful  form  of  or- 
ganization for  Government  employes.  While  the 
syndicates  belonging  to  the  various  federations  retain 
the  greater  part  of  the  funds  collected,  paying  only 
between  two  and  eight  cents  a  month  per  member  to 
the  federation,  a  National  Syndicate  retains  almost 
the  totality  of  the  monthly  dues  collected  by  the  af- 
filiated syndicates  which  vests  the  "  governing  body  " 
with  extended  powers.  This  organization  which  in 
no  way  harmonizes  with  the  syndicalist  spirit  is  only^ 


fr6  ,THE  NEW,  UNIONISM 

temporary  and  will  disappear  as  soon  as  government 
employes  succeed  in  wresting  a  larger  measure  of 
freedom. 

The  growth  of  the  C.  G.  T.  while  relatively  slow, 
has  been  constant.  In  1902  it  comprised  some  1000 
syndicates;  in  1903,  1220;  in  1904,  1792;  in  1906, 
2399;  in  1908,  2581;  in  1910,  3012;  in  1912,  2837. 
The  figures  for  1910  and  1912  should  not  be  com- 
pared, as  they  have  been  by  several  opponents  of 
syndicalism  to  point  out  a  decrease  in  the  membership 
of  the  C.  G.  T.  On  the  contrary  the  number  of  ad- 
herents in  good  standing  has  grown  from  355,000  in 
1911  to  455,000  in  1912-  with  a  total  membership 
of  about  600,000.  This  is  the  more  remarkable  when 
we  consider  that  over  7000  members  were  lost  by  the 
Federation  of  the  Building  Workers  and  the  National 
Railroad  Syndicate  as  the  consequence  of  unsuccess- 
ful strikes. 

The  decrease  in  the  number  of  affiliated  syndicates 
simply  means  that  the  missing  unite  have  become 
merged  with  other  unions  of  related  trades. 

We  notice  the  same  decrease  in  the  number  of  af- 
filiated federations  of  which  there  were  fifty-seven 
in  1910  and  only  fifty-three  in  1912:  the  Northern 
Agricultural  Federation  has  become  amalgamated 
with  the  Horticultural  Federation ;  the  Federation  of 
Chauffeurs,  Motormen  and  Electricians  and  the 
Federation  of  Engineers  have  joined  the  Federation 
of  the  Metal  Workers.  The  Federation  of  Fur 
Workers  joined  the  Federation  of  Skins  and  Hides 
Workers,  etc. 

The  resources  of  the  C.  G.  T.  are  almost  insignifi- 


REVOLUTIONAKY  SYNDICALISM        It. 

cant.  The  section  of  the  Federation  of  Syndicates 
collects  from  every  affiliated  organization  twelve  cents 
a  month  for  every  hundred  members  and  one  cent 
a  month  per  member  in  the  case  of  isolated  syndi- 
cates. The  section  of  the  Federation  of  Labor  Ex- 
changes collects  one  cent  per  member  and  per  year. 
Individual  members  pay  to  their  syndicates  purely 
nominal  dues  of  a  few  cents  a  month.  The  Federa- 
tion of  the  Printing  Trade,  the  most  aristocratic  and 
least  popular  of  federations  has  maintained  the  high- 
est dues  of  all,  forty  cents  a  month. 

The  C.  G.  T.,  however,  does  not  consider  money  as 
nervus  belli.  It  disregards  the  services  of  mutuality 
and  insurance  as  weapons  in  the  labor  war  and  con- 
siders that  reserve  funds  only  lead  to  conservatism. 
The  receipts  of  the  C.  G.  T.,  less  than  $15,000  a 
year,  are  only  applied  to  administration  expense.  In 
case  of  strike,  the  C.  G.  T.  sends  out  delegates  and 
systematizes  the  work  of  resistance  but  never  fur- 
nishes any  cash  help  to  the  striking  bodies. 

The  Confederation  has  published  since  1900  a 
weekly  paper  La  Voix  du  Peuple  of  which  less  than 
10,000  copies  are  struck  off.  But  it  is  rather  a  gen- 
eral circular  than  a  paper  and  is  kept  on  file  at  the 
rooms  of  the  syndicates  which  are  compelled  to  pay 
for  at  least  one  subscription  a  year.  The  Committee 
on  the  newspaper  is  made  up  of  twelve  members,  six! 
from  each  section.  The  Voix  du  Peuple  must  be 
edited  by  workers  from  groups  affiliated  with  the  Con- 
federation. 

The  attitude  of  the  Confederation  to  the  capitalist 
press  is  worthy  of  notice.  No  reporter  or  special 


78  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

writer  ever  receives  any  information  or  is  admitted 
to  meetings  or  secures  interviews  with  men  prominent 
in  the  labor  movement  unless  he  is  a  member  in  good 
standing  of  the  Professional  Writers'  Syndicate  af- 
filiated with  the  Confederation.  While  writers  can- 
not be  held  responsible  for  the  opinions  of  the  peri- 
odicals employing  them,  they  lose  their  card 
whenever  they  misrepresent  any  facts  or  misquote  any 
speakers. 

An  interesting  development  in  the  history  of 
French  syndicalism  is  the  spreading  of  a  class-con- 
scious feeling  among  groups  of  the  population  which 
a  decade  ago  would  have  repudiated  all  ideas  of  sol- 
idarity with  manual  laborers. 

Since  1903  various  classes  of  government  em- 
ployes, such  as  road-menders,  public  school  teachers, 
postal,  telephone  and  telegraph  workers,  tax  collect- 
ors, custom  house  employes,  etc.,  have  made  efforts 
to  transform  their  benevolent  associations  into  fight- 
ing syndicates.  Their  desire  to  organize  has  been 
prompted  by  their  gradual  enslavement  at  the  hands  of 
local  deputies  and  senators  not  to  mention  members  of 
minor  elective  bodies  who  have  reduced  them,  in  elec- 
tion times,  to  the  position  of  more  or  less  willing 
propagandists. 

While  the  spoils  system  is  not  officially  recognized 
in  French  politics,  the  abnormal  development  of  bu- 
reaucratic institutions  enables  every  representative  of 
a  ruling  majority  "  having  the  ear  "  of  the  Govern- 
ment, to  tyrannize  over  hundreds  of  state  employes 
in  his  election  district. 

The  manual  workers  have  on  several  occasions  ex- 


REVOLUTIONARY  SYNDICALISM       79 

tended  to  those  victims  of  political  exploitation   a 
cordial  invitation  to  join  hands  with  them. 

The  congress  of  Labor  Exchanges  held  in  Algiers 
in  1902  passed  the  following  resolution: 

No  class  of  workers  can  be  kept  out  of  the  syndicalist 
sphere  of  activity  whether  those  workers  are  employed  by 
private  parties  or  by  the  State.  The  congress  directs  La- 
bor Exchanges  to  admit  to  affiliation  all  organizations  of 
state  employes  as  well  as  associations  of  state  teachers 
whose  statutes  indicate  clearly  that  their  purpose  is  to  de- 
fend the  interests  of  such  corporative  groups. 

In  the  recent  years  the  Syndicate  of  Post  Office, 
Telegraph  and  Telephone  Workers  and  the  National 
Syndicate  of  Railroad  Workers  have  attracted  a  good 
deal  of  attention  hy  their  strikes  of  1909  and  1910 
but  what  created  the  deepest  impression  all  over  the 
country  was  the  belligerent  attitude  of  the  school 
teachers,  whose  state  of  mind  is  likely  to  be  reflected 
by  the  coming  generation  entrusted  to  their  care. 

As  a  consequence  of  the  resolution  passed  by  the 
Algiers  congress  a  Committee  on  Syndicalist  Educa- 
tion made  up  of  six  teachers  and  six  working  men 
was  established  by  the  Federation  of  Labor  Ex- 
changes; it  accomplished  very  little  and  was  abol- 
ished in  1905.  In  that  year  Yvetot,  then  secretary 
of  the  C.  G.  T.  for  the  section  of  Labor  Exchanges, 
feent  to  every  exchange  a  circular  recommending  that 
all  possible  advances  be  made  to  teachers  and  every 
help  extended  to  them.  Several  teachers'  benevolent 
societies  transformed  themselves  into  syndicates  and 
joined  the  local  labor  exchanges.  When  the  Syndicate 
of  the  Seine  Teachers,  however,  filed  its  application, 


80  .THE  NEW,  UNIONISM 

a  charter  was  refused  to  them  by  the  government  and 
the  state  attorney  general  was  instructed  to  proceed 
against  them. 

In  spite  of  all,  the  syndicalist  teachers  sent  out  in 
December,  1905,  a  daring  manifesto  in  which  they 
stated  that  they  were  teaching  "  not  governmental 
truth  but  absolute  truth"  and  therefore  considered 
themselves  independent.  They  also  declared  their 
formal  intention  to  affiliate  with  the  local  Labor  Ex- 
changes. 

Many  teachers  lost  their  positions  but  the  move- 
ment grew  all  over  France  and  on  August  16  and  17, 
1912,  the  teachers'  congress  held  in  Chambery 
adopted  a  militant  attitude:  it  passed  resolutions  in 
favor  of  equal  pay  for  men  and  women  and  approved 
of  coeducation  as  the  best  means  of  bringing  about 
sex  equality.  Most  significant  was  the  resolution  em- 
bodying the  attitude  of  the  teachers  toward  the  C. 
G.  T.: 

The  congress  addresses  to  its  fellow  workers  organized 
in  the  C.  G.  T.  its  sympathy  with  the  propaganda  of  eman- 
cipation and  education  which  they  are  carrying  on.  .  .  . 
The  teachers  declare  once  more  their  solidarity  with  all  the 
wage  earners  united  under  the  flag  of  the  C.  G.  T. 

Another  resolution  read : 

For  the  purpose  of  maintaining  the  relations  existing  be- 
tween the  union  men  serving  as  soldiers  and  the  unions  to 
which  they  belong,  there  shall  be  created  in  every  one  of  our 
syndicates  a  Soldier's  Penny  fund  designed  to  give  moral 
and  financial  support  to  our  comrades  in  the  army. 

These  resolutions  called  forth  a  storm  of  protest 


in  both  the  conservative  and  radical  press.  On  Au- 
gust 22  the  minister  of  education  ordered  the  disso- 
lution of  the  teachers'  syndicate  to  take  place  on  or 
before  September  10.  Few  of  the  syndicates  obeyed 
and,  most  interesting  symptom,  the  Federation  of 
Teachers'  Benevolent  Associations,  a  very  conserva- 
tive body  with  over  100,000  adherents,  declared  itself 
favorable  to  the  principles  of  syndicalism.  At  this 
writing  no  decision  has  been  taken  by  the  govern- 
ment. 

The  Soldier's  Penny  fund  to  which  the  teachers 
pledged  themselves  to  contribute,  is  a  fund  estab- 
lished by  the  C.  G.  T.  and  out  of  which  all  the  syn- 
dicated workers  called  under  the  flag  are  paid  a  nom- 
inal allowance,  of  $3.65  a  year  or  a  cent  a  day; 
its  purpose  is  to  remind  them  of  their  syndicalistic 
affiliations  and  oblige  them,  to  call  regularly  at  the 
Labor  Exchanges  of  the  city  or  town  where  they  are 
garrisoned.  There  they  can  attend  lectures,  perfect 
their  technical  education  and  read  antimilitarist  lit- 
erature. Following  Herve's  advice,  the  C.  G.  T.  was 
quick  to  take  advantage  of  the  fact  that  owing  to 
the  compulsory  military  service  thousands  of  young 
men  from  eighteen  to  twenty-five  were  herded  together 
in  barracks  and  could  be  easily  reached  by  anti-mili- 
tarist propaganda. 

At  its  12th  congress,  held  in  Havre  in  September, 
1912,  the  C.  G.  T.  reaffirmed  the  position  it  adopted 
at  the  Marseilles  congress  in  regard  to  war  and  anti- 
militarism.  The  Soldier's  Penny  fund  was  enthu- 
siastically approved  of  as  a  means  of  propaganda. 


82  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

Another  attempt  was  made  by  the  Guesdists  to  estab- 
lish regular  relations  between  the  Confederation  and 
the  socialist  party  but  the  motion  was  defeated  by  a 
very  large  majority.  In  the  discussion  the  "  pure  " 
syndicalists  laid  special  stress  on  the  point  that,  should 
such  a  connection  be  established,  unions  would  be 
fatally  drawn  into  politics  to  the  detriment  of  their 
economic  activity. 

While  the  C.  G.  T.  never  takes  part  in  any  political 
agitation,  it  does  not  fail  to  notice  measures  planned 
or  taken  by  the  government  or  reform  laws  passed 
by  the  French  parliament  and  to  express  its  opposi- 
tion to  them  mainly  as  a  matter  of  education  for  the 
workers.  When  rumors  of  a  possible  European  con- 
flagration became  current  in  Europe,  the  C.  G.  T. 
called  an  extraordinary  congress  which  met  on  No- 
vember 24  and  25,  1912.  One  thousand  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty-three  labor  groups  were  represented 
and  confirmed  the  anti-militarist  resolutions  of  the 
September  congress.  They  also  accepted  the  princi- 
ple of  a  general  twenty-four-hour  strike  as  an  anti- 
militarist  demonstration.  Some  500,000  men 
obeyed  the  strike  order  sent  out  on  December  16, 
1912. 

A  curious  incident  took  place  immediately  after  the 
two  anti-militarist  congresses  held  in  Paris  and  Basel. 
The  French  government  issued  an  order  of  mobiliza- 
tion which  reached  several  villages  on  the  German 
border  on  the  night  of  November  26  and  27.  Every 
man  called  under  the  flag  responded  and  the  conserv- 
ative papers  enjoyed  keenly  what  they  called  the 
difference  between  theory  and  practice.  That  order 


REVOLUTIONARY  SYNDICALISM        83 

was  explained  away  later  on  as  due  to  a  "  mistake  " 
of  a  telegraph  employe. 

Bearing  in  mind  that  the  C.  G.  T.  has  455,000 
dues  paying  members  and  the  French  Socialist  party 
only  70,000,  one  can  readily  understand  the  inde- 
pendent attitude  of  the  syndicalists  towards  the  so- 
cialists. This  attitude  is  not  new.  From  1871  to 
1879  both  mutualism  and  socialism  dominated  the 
unions.  At  the  Marseilles  congress  in  1879  the  so- 
cialists won  a  decisive  battle.  Until  1896  the  unions 
remained  frankly  socialistic.  At  the  London  con- 
gress, however,  a  break  took  place  between  the  par- 
tisans of  economic  action  and  those  of  political  ac- 
tion. 

When  the  four  socialist  deputies  Millerand,  Viviani, 
Gerault-Richard  and  Jaures  demanded  to  be  seated 
in  the  congress  on  the  strength  of  their  parliamentary 
mandate,  a  heated  debate  took  place.  They  were 
finally  seated  by  a  vote  of  sixty  against  forty.  The 
seating  of  anarchists  caused  another  violent  discussion 
and  the  vote  showed  how  evenly  divided  up  the  con- 
gress was.  The  opponents  of  political  action  were 
eeated  by  a  vote  of  fifty-seven  against  fifty-six.  The 
"  minority  "  headed  by  Millerand  withdrew  and  asked 
to  be  allowed  to  attend  the  congress  as  a  separate  sec- 
tion, which  privilege  was  granted. 

Since  then,  vain  efforts  have  been  made  at  every 
congress  to  commit  the  workers'  organization  (after 
1902  the  C.  G.  T.)  to  a  socialist  policy.  The  12th 
Congress  seems  to  have  shattered  forever  the  hopes 
of  the  politicians  of  gaining  a  foothold  in  the 
.C.  G.  T, 


84  THE  OTEW  UNIONISM 

One  of  the  resolutions  relative  to  the  rise  in  prices 
presented  at  this  congress  was  a  suggestion  to  the 
workers  to  give  up  alcohol,  tobacco,  gambling  and  the 
consumption  of  unhygienic  food  products,  to  boycott 
all  articles  whose  prices  have  been  raised  by  combines, 
and  other  advice  generally  associated  with  papers  read 
in  women's  reform  clubs.  Leon  Jouhaux,  the  organ- 
izer of  the  congress  and  secretary  of  the  C.  G.  T.  did 
not  miss  such  a  good  opportunity  to  jeer  at  the  re- 
formists to  whom  the  resolution  was  thrown  as  a  sop. 

Several  other  resolutions  pointed  to  the  constant 
striving  of  the  huge  machine  towards  the  uniting  of 
its  various  elements  and  the  smooth  running  of  its 
parts.  A  committee  was  appointed  to  bring  about 
the  amalgamation  of  the  two  more  important  and 
of  the  several  minor  organizations  with  which  trans- 
portation workers  are  now  affiliated. 

The  working  principle  of  the  Confederation  is  not 
to  discipline  or  exclude  the  elements  which  do  not 
fit  in  with  a  preconceived  theory,  but  to  wait  until 
their  nonconformism  creates  actual  difficulties  and 
then  to  point  out  the  way  to  peace  through  industrial- 
ist conformism. 

Much  as  the  leaders  of  the  C.  G.  T.  would  object 
to  such  a  classification,  we  may  divide  them  up  into 
two  groups :  the  thinkers  and  the  fighters.  The  first 
are  statesmen  and  diplomats,  planning  and  organiz- 
ing; the  others  stir  up  mobs  in  meeting  halls  and 
indulge  in  the  verbal  pyrotechnics  and  spectacular 
type  of  action  which  keeps  workers  and  employers 
keyed  up  to  the  proper  pitch. 

Most  prominent  in  the  councils  of  the  Confedera- 


REVOLUTIONARY  SYNDICALISM        85 

tion  is  Emile  Pouget,  generally  considered  as  the 
C.  G.  T.'s  technical  expert.  He  has  been  frequently 
compared  to  Richelieu's  trusted  adviser,  "  His  Grey 
Eminence."  Unctuous  of  speech,  he  can  when  the 
occasion  requires,  reveal  an  iron  will.  A  lawyer's  sou 
he  has  preserved  the  bourgeoisie's  clothes  and  man- 
ner. His  age  (he  was  born  in  1860)  also  imparts  to 
him  a  little  more  dignity  than  would  befit  the  other 
leaders,  much  younger  men. 

His  career  has  been  a  picturesque  one;  expelled 
from  a  high  school  for  "  publishing  "  a  revolutionary 
sheet  circulated  mostly  among  his  fellow  scholars,  he 
became  a  clerk  in  a  department  store.  He  joined 
an  anarchist  group  and  studied  Bakunin's  theories. 
Then  he  wrote  an  appeal  to  the  army  inciting  sol- 
diers to  insurrection  and  was  fortunate  enough  to  es- 
cape prosecution.  Soon  after,  however,  during  the 
1883-  bread  riots,  he  was  arrested  and  sentenced  to 
eight  years  in  prison.  Pardoned  after  three  years  he 
became  a  book  salesman  and  succeeded  in  1889  in 
founding  a  revolutionary  organ  Le  Pere  Peinard. 
Jail  sentences  began  to  pour  down  upon  him  until, 
having  commended  the  acts  of  terrorism  committed 
by  the  anarchists  Ravachol,  Vaillant  and  Henry,  he 
no  longer  felt  safe  in  France  and  became  a  voluntary 
exile. 

Taking  advantage  of  a  general  amnesty,  he  re- 
turned from  London  in  1894  and  became  converted 
to  syndicalism.  He  is  now  editor  of  the  Voix  du 
Peuple,  official  organ  of  the  C.  G.  T.  in  which  he 
has  always  advocated  anti-militarism  and  sabotage, 
isvhich  word  he  did  not  coin  but  added  to  the  vocabu- 


86  THE  NEW,  UNIONISM 

lary  of  labor  questions  in  1894  while  delivering  ad- 
dresses in  London. 

Victor  Griffuehles,  formerly  secretary  of  the  C.  G. 
T.  and  now  director  of  its  printing  plant,  stands  in 
striking  contrast  to  the  Grey  Eminence.  He  is  thirty- 
nine  years  old  and  belongs  to  a  working  class  family. 
Apprenticed  to  a  shoemaker  when  a  child,  he  had 
but  little  schooling.  No  sooner  was  he  able  to  hold 
a  pen  than  he  began  to  earn  jail  sentences  for  ultra- 
radical  statements.  He  rose  successively  to  the  position 
of  delegate  to  the  Federation  of  Syndicates,  sec- 
retary of  the  Federation  of  Skins  and  Hides  Workers, 
and  secretary  of  the  C.  G.  T.  He  was  the  inaugurator 
of  the  bumper  strike  which  is  described  in  the  chapter 
on  Direct  Action.  His  book  on  Syndicalist  Action 
is  one  of  the  cleverest  exposes  of  French  syndicalism. 

Levy,  until  recently  treasurer  of  the  C.  G.  T., 
Merrheim,  secretary  of  the  Federation  of  Metal 
Workers,  and  Jouhaux,  secretary  of  the  C.  G.  T., 
form  with  Pouget  and  Griff uehles  the  "  cabinet "  of 
the  C.  G.  T. 

Yvetot,  Niel,  Bousquet  and  especially  Pataud,  the 
"  King  of  Electricity,"  are  the  great  field  workers  and 
agitators. 

George  Yvetot,  a  rabid  anti-clerical  and  anti-mili- 
tarist, was  born  forty  years  ago  in  a  barrack  and 
brought  up  in  a  mission  school.  He  learned  type- 
setting in  a  religious  printing  establishment  and  se- 
cured a  place  with  the  most  jingoistic  of  all  French 
dailies,  La  Patrie.  Then  he  met  Fernand  Pelloutier 
and  Bakunin  and  under  their  guidance  forgot  entirely 
his  first  training.  His  A.  B.  C.  Syndicaliste  and  his 


BEVOLUTIONAEY  SYNDICALISM       'tit 

Manuel  du  Soldat  earned  him  several  jail  terms.  He 
has  the  reputation  of  being  the  most  brutally  out- 
spoken orator  in  the  syndicalist  movement. 

"  Little  "  Luquet,  thirty-four  years  old,  an  ex-bar- 
ber, conducted  the  barbers'  strike  which  was  won 
through  desperate  sabotage  (see  page  44)  and  or- 
ganized the  southern  agricultural  workers,  perhaps 
the  hardest  class  of  the  population  to  win  over  to  syn- 
dicalist ideas. 

Niel,  an  ex-waiter,  has  lost  much  of  his  popularity 
on  account  of  his  spasmodic  attacks  of  reformism. 
Since  1909,  when  he  opposed  the  plans  for  a  general 
strike  which  he  knew  to  be  doomed  to  failure,  his 
advice  has  frequently  been  disregarded  by  the  hot- 
heads. 

Bourgeois  France  and  bourgeois  Europe  may  know 
but  little  about  the  0.  G.  T.  and  its  leaders.  They 
cannot  help  knowing  Pataud.  Emile  Pataud  was  born 
in  1870'  in  the  free  ward  of  a  hospital.  His  parents 
were  terribly  poor  and  he  remembers  to  this  day  that 
during  the  winter  of  1879  and  1880  they  never  once 
lighted  a  fire.  Having  won  a  free  scholarship  for  a 
trade  school,  Pataud  studied  until  he  was  fifteen  and 
then  entered  the  Caille  steel  mills  where  he  worked 
as  a  riveter.  Later  on  he  held  positions  as  book- 
keeper and  cooperage  salesman,  then  went  back  to 
the  Caille  mills.  Sent  to  Cherbourg  to  install  ma- 
chinery on  a  torpedo  boat  he  enlisted  in  the  navy  and 
became  a  violent  anti-militarist. 

After  his  discharge  he  worked  as  an  electrician,  was 
engaged  as  private  secretary  by  a  labor  representa- 
tive, founded  a  people's  university,  and  started  to 


8S  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

preach  the  hatred  of  parliamentary  institutions.  Un- 
til 1902  he  kept  himself  alive  in  varied  and  pictur- 
esque ways  even  selling  vegetables  on  a  push  cart 
stand.  Then  he  succeeded  in  organizing  the  workers 
in  the  electrical  industry  and  conducted  a  strike 
against  the  Edison  Company.  Convinced  that  the  in- 
dustrialist system  of  organization  was  the  only  means 
by  which  the  workers  could  win  substantial  victories 
he  planned  the  spectacular  coup  which  made  his  name 
famous.  On  March  8,  1905,  at  eight  o'clock,  every 
electric  light  in  Paris  went  out  and  all  the  machinery 
relying  on  electric  power  was  brought  to  a  standstill. 
After  twenty-two  hours  the  companies  yielded.  The 
current  was  turned  on. 

In  August,  1908  and  1909,  Pataud  resorted  to 
the  same  tactics.  The  government,  however,  foiled 
him  on  both  occasions  by  keeping  a  battalion  of  army 
engineers  ready  to  man  the  plants. 

Syndicalists  are  usually  reticent  when  it  comes  to 
a  detailed  description  of  the  industrial  commonwealth 
of  the  future.  The  French  conception  of  it  may  be 
visualized  to  a  certain  extent  by  a  quotation  from 
a  fanciful  piece  of  writing  due  to  the  pen  of  Pouget 
and  Pataud.  The  title  of  it  is :  How  we  will  make 
the  revolution!  The  preface  reveals,  however,  that 
the  authors  meant  all  the  time,  "  How  we  made  the 
revolution,"  which  explains  why  this  prophecy  is  writ- 
ten in  the  past  tense.  This  is  not  entirely  a  work  of 
fiction,  for  it  was  based  upon  the  results  of  a  nation- 
wide referendum  taken  by  the  C.  G.  T.  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  reorganization  of  society  along  industrial 
lines. 


REVOLUTIONARY  SYNDICALISM        89 

The  Lyons  congress  (1901)  had  expressed  the 
wish  to  have  this  question  placed  on  the  programme  of 
the  next  congress.  In  order  that  the  answers  should 
reflect  faithfully  the  ideas  prevalent  among  the  work- 
ingmen,  the  Confederal  Committee  submitted  the* 
question  to  all  the  syndicates.  The  following  ques- 
tions were  sent  out: 

(1)  How  would  your  syndicate  act  in  order  to  transform 
itself  from  a  fighting  group  into  a  productive  group  ? 

(2)  How  would  you  proceed  to  take  possession  of  the 
machinery  pertaining  to  your  industry1? 

(3)  How  do  you  conceive  the  organization  and  manage- 
ment of  the  shops  and  factories  in  the  future  ? 

(4)  If  your  syndicate  belongs  to  the  highways  and  trans- 
portation system,  how  do  you  conceive  its  management? 

(5)  What  will  be  your  relations  to  your  federation  of 
trade  or  of  industry  after  the  reorganization? 

(6)  On  what  principle  would  the  distribution  of  products 
take  place  and  how  would  the  productive  groups  procure 
raw  material  for  themselves? 

(7)  What  part  would  the  labor  exchanges  play  in  the 
transformed  society  and  what  would  be  their  duties  with 
reference  to  the  collecting  of  statistics  and  to  the  distribu- 
tion of  products? 

At  the  Montpellier  congress,  in  1902,  a  number  of 
reports  were  presented  answering  the  above  questions. 
The  reports  were  drawn  in  the  name  of  the  syndicates 
and  came  from  different  parts  of  France.  Only  a 
limited  number  of  them  were  printed  as  appendices 
to  the  general  report  of  the  congress.  Among  them, 
it  may  be  interesting  to  note,  was  the  report  of  the 
syndicate  of  agricultural  laborers.  The  rest  were 
summed  up  in  the  official  organ  of  the  Confederation, 
La  Voix  du  Peuple, 


90  THE  -NEW  UNIONISM 

Pataud  and  Pouget's  book  appeared  in  1905. 
Omitting  a  description  of  the  riots  which  preceded 
the  general  strike  and  the  expropriation  of  the  em- 
ployers, we  come  to  two  interesting  passages:  one 
relative  to  the  remuneration  of  the  workers  in  the  new 
commonwealth  and  the  other  relative  to  the  treatment 
accorded  to  those  unwilling  to  accept  the  new  order  of 
things : 

Every  human  being  from  fifteen  to  fifty,  regardless  of 
the  class  of  work  performed  was  entitled  to  an  equal  re- 
numeration  paid  to  him  in  two  different  ways,  so  as  to  sat- 
isfy, on  the  one  side,  his  natural  wants,  on  the  other,  his 
desire  for  certain  luxuries.  Workers  received  necessaries  of 
life  on  presentation  of  their  union  card;  luxuries  were  de- 
livered to  them  against  luxury  coupons. 

By  necessaries  were  understood  all  the  goods  such  as 
foodstuffs  or  clothing,  the  production  of  which  was  so 
plentiful  that  no  restrictions  could  be  placed  on  their  con- 
sumption; everyone  could  draw  them  from  the  common 
fund  according  to  his  needs,  without  any  other  formality 
than  presenting  his  card  to  the  clerks  in  the  storehouses. 

The  word  luxuries  covered  the  various  materials  which, 
being  in  too  small  quantities  to  be  placed  gratuitously  at 
everyone's  disposal,  would  retain  a  purchase  value,  likely 
to  fluctuate  according  to  the  supply  and  demand.  The  price 
of  these  products  was  calculated  on  the  basis  of  the  old 
currency  system  and  the  quality  of  labor  necessary  to  pro- 
duce them  was  one  of  the  main  factors  hi  the  fluctuation  of 
their  value;  they  were  delivered  against  coupons  drawn  more 
or  less  like  ordinary  bank  checks. 

Whenever  goods  of  the  second  or  luxury  class  became 
plentiful  enough  to  justify  a  free  distribution,  they  were 
added  to  the  first  class  and  placed  without  restriction  within 
everyone's  reach.  .  .  .  The  standard  of  value  established  by 
the  capitalist  system  was  .maintained;  it  was  considered 


REVOLUTIONAEY  SYNDICALISM       91 

i 

that  to  take  as  a  unit  an  hour's  work  instead  of  a 
gram  of  gold  would  be  a  mere  word  quibble. 

Gold  could  be  used  .  .  .  also  to  purchase  goods  from  the 
refractory  ones  who  hadn't  become  reconciled  to  the  new 
social  order.  .  .  . 

Against  those  who,  out  of  narrowness  of  mind  or  fear  of 
incurring  losses,  insisted  on  living  according  to  the  old  sys- 
tem of  life,  no  measure  was  resorted  to,  except  constant  boy- 
cott. .  .  .  Whenever  they  saw  fit  to  conform,  they  were 
welcomed  without  any  bitter  feeling. 

The  former  members  of  the  parasitic  classes  were  invited 
either  to  select  an  occupation  or  to  emigrate;  when  they 
absolutely  refused  to  conform  they  were  treated  as  Apaches. 
It  was  out  of  the  question  to  reopen  prisons  and  to  establish 
anew  for  their  use  a  system  of  correction,  .  .  .  they  were 
deported,  supplied  with  a  certain  amount  of  gold,  to  what- 
ever other  country  they  selected.  .  .  . 

(See  also  chapter  IV,  page  63.) 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  NEW   UNIONISM    IN   THE   UNITED    STATES! 
INDUSTRIALISM 

MANY  have  been  the  attempts  at  organizing  labor 
in  the  United  States  along  the  lines  of  industrial 
unionism  not  only  for  the  purpose  of  winning  ma- 
terial advantages  for  the  workers  but  with  a  view  to 
reshaping  society  and  transforming  it  from  a  republic 
ruled  by  capitalists  into  an  industrial  commonwealth 
ruled  by  the  producers  themselves. 

The  earliest  attempt  at  industrial  organization  in 
the  United  States  was  the  creation  of  the  National 
Labor  Union,  which  was  formed  in  1866  in  Balti- 
more, Md.  After  two  years  it  had  a  membership  of 
640,000  but  went  to  pieces  in  1868-9. 

The  Knights  of  Labor  was  organized  in  1869  and 
rose  to  a  position  of  importance  between  1880  and 
1890.  It  was  not  an  industrial  organization  in  the 
modern  sense  of  the  word  nor  was  it  a  class  organiza- 
tion. It  admitted  to  membership  in  the  same  local 
union,  workers  of  all  industries  in  the  same  locality 
and  also  admitted  small  business  men  and  professional 
men. 

This  organization  ignored  too  completely  the  di- 
vergent interests  of  crafts  which  were  apparently  bet- 
ter served  at  the  time  by  the  system  of  craft  unions 
adopted  by  the  American  Federation  of  Labor.  The 

02 


THE  UNITED  STATES  93 

craft  system  finally  prevailed  and  in  1895  the  Knights 
of  Labor  was  routed  out  of  existence. 

John  Host's  propaganda  for  anarchism  in  this  coun- 
try to  which  he  had  come  in  1882  after  serving  a  sen- 
tence of  imprisonment  in  England,  was  in  the  main 
responsible  for  the  creation  of  another  working  class 
organization  which  embodied  many  features  of  the 
new  unionism. 

Groups  of  anarchists  and  social  revolutionists  from 
twenty-six  cities  sent  their  delegates  to  a  congress  held 
in  Pittsburgh  in  October,  1883.  The  congress  de- 
cided to  establish  an  International  Working  People's 
Association  whose  work  would  be  centralized  through 
an  "  Information  Bureau  "  in  Chicago.  It  drafted 
the  famous  Pittsburgh  proclamation  advocating  "  the 
destruction  of  the  existing  government  by  all  means, 
i.  e.,  by  energetic,  implacable,  revolutionary  and  in- 
ternational action,"  and  the  establishment  of  an  indus- 
trial system  based  upon  "  the  free  exchange  of  equiva- 
lent products  between  the  producing  organizations 
themselves  and  without  the  intervention  of  middlemen 
and  profit  making." 

In  two  years  the  International  membership  grew 
to  some  7000,  of  whom  3000  were  recruited  in  Chi- 
cago. Then  the  Haymarket  tragedy  took  place  with 
the  ensuing  trial  and  the  hanging  of  Spies,  Parsons, 
Fischer  and  Engel  and  the  International  passed  out 
of  existence. 

In  1881  an  International  Working  Men's  Associa- 
tion had  been  created  in  Pittsburgh.  It  was  made 
up  mostly  of  native  American  laborers  and  farmers 
who  rejected  all  parliamentary  action  and  advocated 


94 

education  and  propaganda  as  the  best  means  to  bring 
about  a  social  revolution.  In  1887,  claiming  a  mem- 
bership of  6000,  they  attempted  to  amalgamate  with 
the  Socialist  Labor  party  and  when  negotiations 
failed  they  disbanded. 

The  year  1887  which  witnessed  the  passing  away 
of  several  pioneer  organizations  marked  the  definite 
rise  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor.  It  was 
to  be  and  it  has  remained  in  theory  an  independent 
labor  body  without  any  political  entanglements.  Ac- 
cording to  the  provisions  of  Article  IV,  section  5  of 
its  constitution,  the  Federation  shall  not  affiliate  with 
any  political  party.  At  several  conventions  socialists 
within  its  ranks  have  endeavored  to  commit  the  Fed- 
eration to  a  frankly  socialistic  policy  but  thus  far 
without  success. 

The  development  of  machinery  in  this  country 
soon  began  to  render  craft  organization  in  certain 
trades  absolutely  ineffective;  the  many  disappoint- 
ments suffered  by  the  skilled  men  owing  to  what  Debs 
called  the  "  dog-eat-dog  "  policy  of  the  various  unions 
and  the  growing  importance  of  the  unskilled  in  labor 
problems  made  it  necessary  for  large  groups  of  work- 
ers to  reorganize  along  new  lines. 

The  American  Eailway  Union  was  organized  at 
Chicago  in  June,  1893,  by  Eugene  V.  Debs.  In 
1894,  at  the  time  of  the  great  Pullman  strike,  it  had 
a  membership  of  150,000.  This  rapid  growth  was 
due  to  several  strikes  won  by  the  union,  especially  the 
great  Northern  strike  involving  all  the  employes  of  the 
entire  system.  The  Pullman  strike,  however,  ended 
in  disaster.  In  violation  of  the  law  and  in  defiance 


95 

of  Governor  Altgeld's  protest,  President  Cleveland 
sent  Federal  troops  into  Illinois  and  broke  the  back 
of  the  strike.  Debs  and  several  other  officers  of  the 
American  Railway  Union  were  indicted  and  received 
jail  sentences.  Blacklisted  by  all  the  railroad  com- 
panies, members  of  the  A.  R.  U.  had  to  repudiate  their 
affiliations  and  the  Union,  held  its  last  convention  in 
Chicago  in  1897. 

The  loss  of  the  Pullman  strike  by  the  American 
Railway  Union  was  not  the  only  reason  for  its  dis- 
integration. Many  of  its  former  members  contend 
that  in  spite  of  the  setback  occasioned  by  the  failure 
of  the  Pullman  strike,  the  organization  was  begin- 
ning to  recover  when,  at  the  convention  of  1897,  Debs 
turned  the  organization  over  to  the  Socialist-Demo- 
cratic colonization  scheme. 

In  1895  another  industrial  workers'  group  was  or- 
ganized, the  Western  Federation  of  Miners.  Its  pur- 
pose was  to  bring  together  all  the  workers  in  the  in- 
dustry of  metal  mining  in  the  United  States,  whether 
pick  and  shovel  workers,  millmen,  smeltermen  or  en- 
gineers. 

The  W.  F.  of  M.  was  affiliated  with  the  A.  F.  of 
L.  until  the  Leadville  strike  in  1896.  Failing  to  re- 
ceive any  support,  moral  or  financial  from  the  Federa- 
tion, the  miners  withdrew  from  the  A.  F.  of  L. 

In  1899  the  Western  Labor  Union  was  organized 
by  the  W.  F.  M.  at  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah.  In  1902, 
the  Western  Labor  Union  changed  its  name  and  be- 
came the  American  Labor  Union  and  moved  its  gen- 
eral office  from  Butte,  Mont.,  to  Chicago,  111. 

The  spirit  of  industrial  solidarity  manifested  by; 


96  THE  NEW  ^UNIONISM 

the  miners  spread  among  other  organizations.  In  the 
fall  of  1904  Isaac  Cowen,  American  representative  of 
the  Amalgamated  Society  of  Engineers  of  Great  Brit- 
ain; Clarence  Smith,  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the 
American  Labor  Union;  Thomas  J.  Hagerty,  editor 
of  the  Voice  of  Labor,  organ  of  the  A.  L.  U. ;  George 
Estes,  president  of  the  United  Brotherhood  of  Kail- 
way  employes;  W.  L.  Hall,  general  secretary  of  the 
Brotherhood,  and  Wm.  E.  Trautman,  editor  of  the 
Brauer  Zeitung,  organ  of  the  United  Brewery  Work- 
ers of  America,  held  a  conference  in  Chicago.  They 
invited  thirty-six  other  men  active  in  the  labor  move- 
ment to  meet  them  in  secret  conference  on  January 
2,  1905.  Out  of  the  thirty-six,  only  two,  Max  S. 
Hayes,  editor  of  a  trade  union  paper  and  Victor  Ber- 
ger,  editor  of  a  socialist  publication  declined  to  at- 
tend. 

The  conference  met  at  the  appointed  time,  selected 
William  Dudley  Haywood  as  chairman  of  its  execu- 
tive committee  —  the  other  members  of  the  board  be- 
ing William  E.  Trautman,  A.  M.  Simons,  W.  L.  Hall 
and  Clarence  Smith  —  and  drew  up  a  manifesto  ad- 
dressed to  the  Workers  of  the  World.  It  set  forth  the 
disadvantages  of  pure  and  simple  craft  organization 
and  advocated  the  forming  of  one  single  union  ad- 
mitting all  workers  regardless  of  craft  or  nationality. 

The  manifesto  ended  with  a  call  for  a  convention 
to  be  held  in  Chicago  on  June  27.  This  document 
translated  into  several  languages  was  widely  circulated 
by  the  executive  committee  assisted  by  the  American 
Labor  Union  and  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners. 

One  hundred  and  eighty-six  delegates  met  in  Chi- 


IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  97 

cago,  representing  thirty-four  State,  district,  local  or 
national  organizations. 

The  convention  lasted  twelve  days  and  when  it  ad- 
journed the  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World  had 
been  organized.  The  lahor  groups  admitted  to  affilia- 
tion were:  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners  with; 
27,000'  members ;  the  Socialist  Trade  and  Labor  Alli- 
ance, 1450' members ;  the  Punch  Press  Operators,  168 
members ;  the  United  Metal  Workers,  3000  members ; 
the  Longshoremen's  Union,  400  members ;  the  Amer- 
ican Labor  Union,  16,500  members;  the  United 
Brotherhood  of  Railway  Employes,  2087  members. 
The  following  preamble  was  adopted : 

The  working  class  and  the  employing  class  have  nothing! 
in  common.  There  can  be  no  peace  so  long  as  hunger  and 
want  are  found  among  millions  of  working  people  and  the 
few,  who  make  up  the  employing  class,  have  all  the  good 
things  of  life. 

Between  these  two  classes  a  struggle  must  go  on  until  all 
the  tollers  come  together  on  the  political,  as  well  as  on  the 
industrial  field,  and  take  and  hold  that  which  they  produce 
by  their  labor  through  an  economic  organization  of  the 
working  class,  without  affiliation  with  any  political  party. 

The  rapid  gathering  of  wealth  and  the  centering  of  the 
management  of  industries  into  fewer  and  fewer  hands  make 
the  trade  unions  unable  to  cope  with  the  ever-growing  power 
of  the  employing  class,  because  the  trade  unions  foster  a 
state  of  things  which  allows  one  set  of  workers  to  be  pitted 
against  another  set  of  workers  in  the  same  industry,  thereby 
helping  defeat  one  another  in  wage  wars.  The  trade  unions 
aid  the  employing  class  to  mislead  the  workers  into  the  be- 
lief that  the  working  class  have  interests  in  common  with 
their  employers. 

These  sad  conditions  can  be  changed  and  the  interests  of 
the  working  class  upheld  only  by  an  organization  formed  in 


98  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

such  a  way  that  all  its  members  in  any  one  industry,  or  in 
all  industries,  if  necessary,  cease  work  whenever  a  strike  or 
lockout  is  on  in  any  department  thereof,  thus  making  an 
injury  to  one  an  injury  to  all. 

The  uncertainties  and  the  contradictions  found  in 
this  preamble  are  easily  understood  when  one  bears 
in  mind  the  heterogeneous  elements  which  were  repre- 
sented at  the  first  convention  and  whose  divergent 
views  had,  to  a  certain  extent,  to  be  harmonized :  par- 
liamentary socialists,  opportunists,  Marxists,  anarch- 
ists, industrialists,  craft  unionists.  During  the  first 
year  of  the  I.  W.  W.'s  existence,  those  irreconcilable 
elements  struggled  bitterly  for  supremacy.  The  two 
socialist  factions  looked  upon  the  I.  W.  W.  as  a  con- 
venient battle  ground. 

The  I..  W.  W.  survived  this  internal  strife  and  be- 
gan to  issue  a  monthly  organ,  the  Industrial  Worker. 
It  also  sent  out  the  first  call  for  the  defense  of  Hay- 
wood,  Moyer  and  Pettibone,  the  officers  of  the  W.  F. 
M.  who  had  been  arrested  in  connection  with  the  assas- 
sination of  Governor  Steunenberg  of  Idaho. 

The  second  convention  met  in  September,  1906, 
with  ninety-three  delegates  representing  60,000  work- 
ers. The  struggle  for  control  divided  the  convention 
into  two  factions;  the  reactionaries  with  the  help  of 
the  chairman  tried  to  obstruct  the  deliberation  until 
such  time  as  their  opponents  would  be  obliged  to  leave 
for  their  homes.  The  radicals  succeeded  in  defeating 
these  tactics  but  when  the  convention  adjourned,  the 
former  officials  seized  the  general  headquarters  and 
held  them  with  the  assistance  of  the  police.  The 
newly  elected  officers,  abandoned  to  their  fate  by  the- 


IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  99 

Western  Federation  of  Miners  and  the  socialist  party, 
had  to  open  headquarters  of  their  own.  The  W.  F.  M. 
finally  withdrew  its  support  from  the  usurpers 
who  gave  up  the  struggle.  At  the  third  convention, 
which  was  quite  uneventful,  it  became  evident  that  the 
socialist  politicians  who  had  remained  within  the  or- 
ganization were  striving  to  use  it  in  furtherance  of 
their  own  ends.  In  1908,  however,  at  the  fourth 
convention,  the  purely  industrialist  element  secured 
control  of  the  organization.  The  wording  of  the  pre- 
amble was  greatly  modified  and  in  its  amended  ver- 
sion that  document  reflected  the  revolutionary  trend 
of  the  new  leaders.  The  second  paragraph  was 
changed  to  read  thus : 

Between  these  two  classes  a  struggle  must  go  on  until  the 
workers  of  the  world  organize  as  a  class,  take  possession  of 
the  earth  and  the  machinery  of  production,  and  abolish  the 
wage  system. 

Finally  two  new  paragraphs  were  added  to  the  pre- 
amble : 

Instead  of  the  conservative  motto,  "A  fair  day's  wages 
for  a  fair  day's  work,"  we  must  inscribe  on  our  banner  the 
revolutionary  watchword,  "  Abolition  of  the  wage  system." 

It  is  the  historic  mission  of  the  working  class  to  do  away 
with  capitalism.  The  army  of  production  must  be  organ- 
ized, not  only  for  the  every-day  struggle  with  capitalists, 
but  also  to  carry  on  production  when  capitalism  shall  have 
been  overthrown.  By  organizing  industrially  we  are  form- 
ing the  structure  of  the  new  society  within  the  shell  of  the 
old. 

The  defeated  politicians  immediately  organized  an- 
other I.  W.  W.  committed  to  a  parliamentary  policy. 


100  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

It  stands  at  present  in  the  same  relation  to  the  first 
I.  W.  -W.  as  the  Socialist  Labor  Party  stands  to  the 
Socialist  Party.  It  is  little  more  than  a  name  and  has 
not  played  any  part  in  the  labor  disputes  which  have 
since  arisen. 

At  the  first  convention  of  the  I.  W.  W.  it  was  gen- 
erally agreed  -that  industrial  unionism  was  to  be 
primarily  a  departmental  structure.  The  original 
constitution  provided  for  thirteen  departments.  This 
system  soon  appeared  impracticable  and  as  the  purely 
industrialist  view  was  beginning  to  dominate  the  mem- 
bership it  was  more  and  more  definitely  recognized 
that  the  New  Unionism  should  organize  from  below 
upward.  In  other  words,  the  local  industrial  union, 
not  the  department,  was  to  be  the  basis  of  organiza- 
tion. The  discussion  relative  to  departments  taking 
place  at  the  various  conventions  have  only  had  a  tenta- 
tive, almost  academic  character. 

We  quote  the  following  from  a  pamphlet  The  I.  W. 
W.,  Its  history,  structure  and  methods,  by  Vincent 
St.  John,  who  is,  at  present,  general  secretary  of  the 
organization : 

GENERAL  OUTLINE 

1.  The  unit  of  organization  is  the  Local  Industrial  Union. 
The  local  industrial  union  embraces  all  of  the  workers  of  a 
given  industry  in  a  given  city,  town  or  district. 

2.  All  local  industrial  unions  of  the  same  industry  are 
combined  into  a  National  Industrial  Union  with  jurisdiction 
over  the  entire  industry. 

3.  National  industrial  unions  of  closely  allied  industries 
are  combined  into  Departmental  Organizations.    For  exam- 
ple, all  national  industrial  unions  engaged  in  the  production 


IK  THE  UNITED  STATES  101J 

of  Food  Products  and  in  handling  them  would  be  combined! 
into  the  Department  of  Food  Products.  Steam,  Air,  Water 
and  Land  national  divisions  of  the  Transportation  Industry,, 
form  the  Transportation  Department. 

4.  The  Industrial  Departments  are  combined  into  the 
General  Organization,  which  in  turn  is  to  be  an  integral  part 
of  a  like  International  Organization ;  and  through  the  inter- 
national organization  establish  solidarity  and  cooperation 
between  the  workers  of  all  countries. 

SUBDIVISIONS 

Taking  into  consideration  the  technical  differences  that 
exist  within  the  different  departments  of  the  industries,  and 
the  needs  where  large  numbers  of  workers  are  employed,  the 
local  industrial  union  is  branched  to  meet  these  require- 
ments. 

1.  Language  branches,  so  that  the  workers  can  conduct 
the  affairs  of  the  organization  in  the  language  they  are 
most  familiar  with. 

2.  Shop  branches,  so  that  the  workers  of  each  shop  con- 
trol the  conditions  that  directly  affect  them. 

3.  Department  branches  in  large  industries,  to  simplify 
and  systematize  the  business  of  the  organization. 

4.  District  branches,  to  enable  members  to  attend  meet- 
ings of  the  union  without  having  to  travel  too  great  a  dis- 
tance.    These  branches  are  only  necessary  in  the  large  cities 
and  big  industries  where  the  industry  covers  large  areas. 

5.  District  Councils,  in  order  that  every  given  industrial 
district  shall  have  complete  industrial  solidarity  among  the 
workers  in  all  industries  of  such  district,  as  well  as  among 
the  workers  of  each  industry.     The  Industrial  District  Coun- 
cil combines  all  the  local  industrial  unions  of  the  district. 
Through  it  concerted  action  is  maintained  for  its  district. 

FUNCTIONS  OF  BRANCHES 

Branches  of  an  industrial  local  deal  with  the  employer 
only  through  the  Industrial  Union.  Thus,  while  the  work- 


UNIVERSITY  OF  SOUTHERN  CALIFORNIA  LIBRA 


102  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

ers  in  each  branch  determine  the  conditions  that  directly  af- 
fect them,  they  act  in  concert  with  all  the  workers  through 
the  industrial  union. 

As  the  knowledge  of  the  English  language  becomes  more 
general,  the  language  branches  will  disappear. 

The  development  of  machine  production  will  also  grad- 
ually eliminate  the  branches  based  on  technical  knowledge, 
or  skill. 

The  constant  development  and  concentration  of  the  owner- 
ship and  control  of  industry  will  be  met  by  a  like  concen- 
tration of  the  number  of  industrial  unions  and  industrial 
departments.  It  is  meant  that  the  organization  at  all  tunes 
shall  conform  to  the  needs  of  the  hour  and  eventually 
furnish  the  union  through  which  and  by  which  the  organ- 
ized workers  will  be  able  to  determine  the  amount  of  food, 
clothing,  shelter,  education  and  amusement  necessary  to  sat- 
isfy the  wants  of  the  workers. 

ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  ORGANIZATION 

Local  unions  have  full  charge  of  all  their  local  affairs; 
elect  their  own  officers;  determine  their  pay;  and  also  the 
amount  of  dues  collected  by  the  local  from  the  membership. 
The  general  organization,  however,  does  not  allow  any  local 
to  charge  over  $1.00  per  month  dues  or  $5.00  initiation 
fee. 

Each  branch  of  a  local  industrial  union  elects  a  delegate 
or  delegates  to  the  central  committee  of  the  local  industrial 
union.  This  central  committee  is  the  administrative  body  of 
the  local  industrial  union.  Officers  of  the  branches  consist 
of  secretary,  treasurer,  chairman  and  trustees. 

Officers  of  the  local  industrial  union  consist  of  secretary 
and  treasurer,  chairman  and  trustees. 

Each  local  industrial  union  within  a  given  district  elects 
a  delegate  or  delegates  to  the  district  council.  The  district 
council  has  as  officers  a  secretary-treasurer  and  trustees. 
The  officers  of  the  district  council  are  elected  by  the  dele- 
gates thereof. 

All  officers  in  local  bodies  are  elected  by  referendum  vote 


IN  THE  UNITED  STATES          103 

of  all  the  membership  involved,  except  those  of  the  district 
council. 

Proportional  representation  does  not  prevail  in  the  dele- 
gations of  the  branches  and  to  district  councils.  Each 
branch  and  local  has  the  same  number  of  delegates.  Each 
delegate  casts  one  vote. 

National  industrial  unions  hold  annual  conventions. 
Delegates  from  each  local  of  the  national  union  cast  a  vote 
based  upon  the  membership  of  the  local  that  they  represent. 

The  national  industrial  union  nominates  the  candidates 
for  officers  at  the  convention,  and  the  three  nominees  re- 
ceiving the  highest  votes  at  the  convention  are  sent  to  all 
the  membership  to  be  voted  upon  in  selecting  the  officers. 

The  officers  of  the  national  unions  consist  of  secretary  and 
treasurer,  and  executive  board.  Each  national  union  elects 
delegates  to  the  department  to  which  it  belongs.  The  same 
procedure  is  followed  in  electing  delegates  as  in  electing  of- 
ficers. 

Industrial  departments  hold  conventions  and  nominate  the 
delegates  that  are  elected  to  the  general  convention.  Dele- 
gates to  the  general  convention  nominate  candidates  for  the 
offices  of  the  general  organization  which  are  a  General  Sec- 
retary-Treasurer, and  a  General  Organizer.  These  general 
officers  are  elected  by  the  vote  of  the  entire  organization. 

The  General  Executive  Board  is  composed  of  one  member 
from  each  Industrial  Department  and  is  selected  by  the 
membership  of  the  department. 

General  conventions  are  held  annually  at  present. 

The  rule  in  determining  the  wages  of  the  officers  of  all 
parts  of  the  organization  is,  to  pay  the  officers  who  are 
needed  approximately  the  same  wages  they  would  receive 
when  employed  in  the  industry  in  which  they  work.  The 
wages  of  the  general  secretary  and  the  general  organizer  are 
each  $90.00  per  month. 

Concerning  the  methods  of  the  Industrial  Workers 
of  the  World  Vincent  St.  John  expresses  himself  as 
follows : 


104          THE  NEW;  UNIONISM 

As  a  revolutionary  organization  the  Industrial  Workers 
of  the  World  aims  to  use  any  and  all  tactics  that  will  get 
the  results  sought  with  the  least  expenditure  of  time  and 
energy.  The  tactics  used  are  determined  solely  by  the 
power  of  the  organization  to  make  good  in  their  use.  The 
question  of  "  right "  and  "  wrong  "  does  not  concern  us. 

No  terms  made  with  an  employer  are  final.  All  peace  so 
long  as  the  wage  system  lasts,  is  but  an  armed  truce.  At 
any  favorable  opportunity  the  struggle  for  more  control  of 
industry  is  renewed. 

The  Industrial  Workers  realize  that  the  day  of  successful 
long  strikes  is  past.  Under  all  ordinary  circumstances  a 
strike  that  is  not  won  in  four  to  six  weeks  cannot  be  won 
by  remaining  out  longer.  In  trustified  industry  the  em- 
ployer can  better  afford  to  fight  one  strike  that  lasts  six 
months  than  he  can  six  strikes  that  take  place  in  that  period. 

The  organization  does  not  allow  any  part  to  enter  into 
time  contracts  with  the  employers.  It  aims  where  strikes 
are  used,  to  paralyze  all  branches  of  the  industry  involved, 
when  the  employers  can  least  afford  a  cessation  of  work  — 
during  the  busy  season  and  when  there  are  rush  orders  to  be 
filled. 

The  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World  maintains  that 
nothing  will  be  conceded  by  the  employers  except  that  which 
we  have  the  power  to  take  and  hold  by  the  strength  of  our 
organization.  Therefore  we  seek  no  agreements  with  the 
employers. 

Failing  to  force  concessions  from  the  employers  by  the 
strike,  work  is  resumed  and  "  sabotage  n  is  used  to  force  the 
employers  to  concede  the  demands  of  the  workers. 

The  great  progress  made  in  machine  production  results  in. 
an  ever  increasing  army  of  unemployed.  To  counteract  this 
the  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World  aims  to  establish  the 
shorter  work  day,  and  to  slow  up  the  working  pace,  thus 
compelling  the  employment  of  more  and  more  workers. 

To  facilitate  the  work  of  the  organization  large  initiation 
fees  and  dues  are  prohibited  by  the  I.  W.  W. 

During  strikes  the  works  are  closely  picketed  and  everjr 


IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  105 

effort  made  to  keep  the  employers  from  getting  workers  into 
the  shops.  All  supplies  are  cut  off  from  strike-bound 
shops.  All  shipments  are  refused  or  missent,  delayed  and 
lost  if  possible.  Strike  breakers  are  also  isolated  to  the  full 
extent  of  the  power  of  the  organization.  Interference  by 
the  government  is  resented  by  open  violation  of  the  govern- 
ment's orders,  going  to  jail  en  masse,  causing  expense  to  the 
tax-payers,  which  is  but  another  name  for  the  employing 
class. 

In  short,  the  I.  W.  W.  advocates  the  use  of  militant  "  di- 
rect action  "  tactics  to  the  full  extent  of  our  power  to  make 
good. 

The  I.  W.  W.  has  taken  a  very  active  part  in  almost 
every  labor  war  waged  since  the  organization  was 
founded. 

In  1906  it  helped  the  hotel  and  restaurant  work- 
ers of  Goldfield,  Nevada,  to  obtain  the  eight  hour  day. 
In  1907  when  textile  mill  owners  in  Skowhegan, 
Maine,  discharged  several  I.  W.  W.  organizers,  3000 
workers  went  on  strike  and  after  four  weeks  won  a 
complete  victory  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the 
A.  F.  of  L.  had  lent  its  assistance  to  the  employers 
and  furnished  strike  breakers.  In  Portland,  Ore- 
gon, 3000  saw  mill  workers  struck  for  a  nine  hour 
day  and  an  increase  in  wages  from  $1.75  to  $2.50 
per  day.  After  six  weeks,  the  companies  yielded  and 
the  prestige  of  the  I.  W.  W.  was  greatly  increased  in 
the  Western  States. 

From  March  10,  1907,  until  April  22,  the  W.  F.  M. 
and  the  I.  W.  W.  had  to  wage  a  bitter  fight  for  ex^ 
istence  in  Goldfield,  Nevada,  antagonized  as  they 
were  by  the  A.  F.  of  L.  In  April  a  compromise  was 
reached  owing  to  the  weakness  of  the  W.  F.  M.  offi- 


106  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

cials.  The  fight  started  again  at  intervals  between 
April  and  September  and  ended  only  when  the  eight 
hour  day  and  the  minimum  wage  of  $4.50  per  day 
for  every  kind  of  labor  had  been  accepted  by  employ- 
ers. 

In  July,  August  and  September,  1909,  the  I.  W.  W. 
managed  the  bloody  JVIcKees  Rocks  strike,  which 
involved  8000  men,  belonging  to  some  sixteen  nation- 
alities, employed  in  the  plants  of  the  Pressed  Steel 
Car  Company.  The  employers  called  to  their  help 
the  State  constabulary  or,  as  the  strikers  called  them, 
the  American  Cossacks.  The  strike  committee 
served  notice  upon  their  commanding  officers  that 
for  every  striker  killed  or  injured  the  life  of  a  Cos- 
sack would  be  taken  in  return.  The  strikers  kept 
their  word.  After  eleven  weeks  of  hostilities  a  ter- 
rible encounter  between  the  mob  and  the  Cossacks,  in 
which  many  were  killed  and  wounded  on  both  sides 
• — the  Cossacks  being  finally  driven  to  take  refuge 
in  the  plants  of  the  Company  —  put  an  end  to  the 
strike. 

In  November,  1909,  the  authorities  of  Spokane, 
Wash.,  ordered  the  arrest  of  all  I.  W.  W.  speakers 
who  attempted  to  hold  street  meetings.  The  locals 
resisted  and  over  500  I.  W.  W.  members,  men  and 
women  went  to  jail.  Two  hundred  went  on  a  hun- 
ger strike  of  from  eleven  to  thirteen  days  and  then 
were  kept  from  thirty  to  forty-five  days  on  two 
ounces  of  bread  a  day  and  water.  In  March,  1910, 
the  Spokane  authorities  yielded  and  a  law  was  passed 
allowing  street  speaking. 

In  the  same  year  the  Fresno  authorities  attempted 


IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  10? 

to  prevent  the  I.  W.  W.  from  organizing  the  orchard 
workers  in  the  San  Joaquin  Valley.  The  fight  lasted 
four  months  during  which  time  over  one  hundred 
I.  W.  W.  men  were  locked  up.  When  detachments  of 
free  speech  fighters  started  for  Fresno  from  Port- 
land, Spokane  and  Denver,  the  Fresno  authorities 
feared  a  civil  war  and  freedom  of  speech,  was  once 
more  granted  in  all  the  region. 

In  the  winter  of  1911,  the  I.  W.  W.  conducted 
the  strike  of  the  Brooklyn  shoe  workers.  In  Jan- 
uary, 1912,  the  workers  in  the  Lawrence  textile  mills, 
25,000  strong,  struck  against  a  reduction  in  wages. 
No  more  than  1500  of  them  were  memhers  of  any 
labor  organization ;  of  this  number,  1200  belonged  to 
Textile  Workers  Union  ISTo.  20,  I.  W.  W.  The 
other  300  were  connected  with  the  United  Textile 
Workers  of  America  holding  a  charter  from  the  A. 
F.  of  L.  The  pressure  of  the  militia,  of  the  State 
detective  force  and  of  a  host  of  private  detectives 
and  even  the  arrest  of  two  strike  leaders,  Ettor  and 
Giovannitti,  failed  to  intimidate  the  strikers.  The 
employers  had  to  accept  the  workers'  terms  and  grant 
increases  of  from  five  per  cent,  to  the  skilled  to  twen- 
ty-five per  cent,  to  the  unskilled  mill  workers. 

The  leaders  of  the  I.  W.  W.  are,  without  exception, 
men  from  the  ranks  of  labor  who  have  won  their 
spurs  in  labor  wars,  who  have  suffered  imprisonment 
and  often  braved  death  for  their  cause.  Vincent  St. 
John,  William  D.  Haywood,  Elizabeth  Ghirley  Flynn, 
William  Trautman,  Joseph  Ettor  and  Arturo  Gio- 
vannitti have  all  served  jail  'sentences;  Vincent  St. 
John  was  shot  and  terribly  injured ;  it  was  probably 


IOS  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

a  desire  on  the  part  of  the  authorities  to  avoid  re- 
prisals which  saved  the  lives  of  Haywood,  Mover 
and  Pettibone,  and  more  recently  Ettor  and  Giovan- 
nitti  held  on  problematic  charges  of  murder. 

Vincent  St.  John,  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the 
I.  W.  W.  was  born  in  1876.  He  went  to  work  when 
barely  fourteen  as  a  delivery  boy.  Later  on  he  be- 
came a  farm  hand,  then  a  tinner,  then  a  printer, 
then  an  upholsterer.  At  eighteen  he  drifted  into 
Cripple  Creek  and  joined  the  W.  F.  M.  In  1900  he 
was  elected  president  of  the  local  miners'  union  of 
Telluride,  Colo.,  and  managed  the  strike  of  1901. 
Arrested  with  ten  other  agitators  on  a  charge  of  con- 
spiracy, then  released,  he  was  driven  out  of 
that  section  of  the  country  by  the  State  authorities. 
In  1903,  he  went  to  Cceur  d'Alene,  Idaho,  and  set  to 
work  organizing  the  miners.  After  the  assassination 
of  Governor  Steunenberg,  he  was  again  arrested, 
held  thirty  days  without  a  hearing,  taken  back  to 
Colorado  on  old  charges,  held  again  for  sixty  days 
and  finally  was  released  on  bonds. 

The  Western  Federation  of  Miners  elected  him  a 
member  of  its  executive  board  in  1906  and  the  same 
year  sent  him  as  delegate  to  the  second  convention  of 
the  I.  W.  W.  A  convinced  industrialist,  he  disap- 
proved of  the  position  taken  by  the  officials  of  the 
W.  F.  M.  at  that  convention,  resigned  and  was  elected 
a  member  of  the  executive  board  of  the  I.  W.  W. 

In  1907  he  went  to  Goldfield,  Nev.  and  worked  in 
the  mines.  At  the  third  convention  of  the  I.  W.  W. 
he  was  elected  general  organizer.  In  November  of 
that  year  he  was  assaulted  and  severely  injured  in 


IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  109 

Goldfield  and  had  to  go  to  Chicago  for  treatment. 
After  leaving  the  hospital  he  served  as  general  or- 
ganizer for  the  I.  W.  W.  until  September,  1908,  when 
he  was  elected  general  secretary  and  treasurer,  an 
office  which  he  has  filled  ever  since. 

William  Dudley  Haywood,  to  whose  popularity; 
the  tremendous  rise  of  the  I.  W.  W.  is  greatly  due, 
was  born  in  Salt  Lake  City  forty-three  years  ago. 
His  father  was  a  miner,  and  his  mother,  having  be- 
come a  widow,  married  another  miner.  Ophir 
Camp  where  the  family  lived  was  rather  far  from; 
school  and  libraries.  At  nine,  barely  able  to  read 
and  write,  Bill  was  sent  to  work  underground.  At 
eleven  it  was  decided  that  he  should  become  a  farmer. 
At  fourteen,  however,  he  took  his  own  destiny  in 
hand,  and  ran  away  to  Nevada  where  he  found  em- 
ployment with  the  Ohio  Mining  Company.  He 
bought  himself  books  and  soon  acquired  an  expert 
knowledge  of  all  the  mining  crafts,  including  sur- 
veying and  assaying.  He  located  a  homestead  in 
Nevada  and  might  have  become  prosperous  had  not 
his  land  soon  afterwards  been  allotted  to  an  Indian 
tribe. 

He  became  a  miner  once  more  and  spent  six  years 
prospecting,  contracting  and  working  leases  in  Ne- 
vada, Utah,  Colorado  and  Idaho.  In  the  meantime 
he  displayed  untiring  activity  in  organizing  the  min- 
ers everywhere,  addressing  camps,  crowds,  hall  audi- 
ences and  winning  much  popularity  through  his 
blunt,  rough  and  ready  fluency.  He  was  in  Silver 
City,  Idaho,  when  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners 
was  organized  and  he  soon  assumed  a  leading  part  in 


110  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

it  Starting  as  assistant  secretary,  he  soon  rose  to 
the  chairmanship  of  the  executive  board  and  was  oc- 
cupying that  office  when  the  Cceur  d'Alene  strike 
took  place  in  1899. 

The  troubles  which  marked  the  Idaho  strike  and 
the  subsequent  uprisings  in  California  mining  towns 
will  not  soon  be  forgotten.  They  were  bloodshed, 
rioting,  martial  rule.  A  whole  town  was  imprisoned 
in  the  "bull  pen,"  the  Governor  of  Colorado  sus- 
pended the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  a  judge  advocate 
general  made  himself  famous  by  his  saying  "  To  hell 
with  the  Constitution,"  and  a  commander  of  the  mi- 
litia announced  that  in  place  of  writs  of  habeas  cor- 
pus, the  strikers  would  get  post-mortems. 

The  Federation  in  the  meantime  was  blowing  up 
mills,  bridges  and  factories.  In  1906  someone  mur- 
dered Governor  Steunenberg  of  Idaho,  by  means  of  a 
bomb.  Haywood  was  then  secretary  and  treasurer  of 
the  Federation.  Arrested  in  Denver,  the  Federa- 
tion's headquarters,  he  was  kidnaped  to  Idaho  and 
charged,  with  Moyer  and  Pettibone,  the  other  officers 
of  the  Federation,  with  the  assassination  of  Steunen- 
berg. 

He  was  kept  a  year  and  a  half  in  the  Boise  jail 
awaiting  trial.  This  long  delay  enabled  the  Western 
Federation  of  Miners,  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor  and  the  Socialist  groups  to  gather  together  an 
enormous  defense  fund.  The  three  men  were  ac- 
quitted. From  the  day  of  the  Boise  verdict  dates 
Haywood's  growing  fame.  He  has  won  the  enmity 
of  many  socialist  leaders  by  his  constant  attacks  on 
the  A.  F.  of  L.  and  his  propaganda  for  industrialism. 


IN  THE  UNITED  STATES          ill 

In  February,  1913,  he  was  recalled  from  the  National 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Socialist  party. 

Joseph  J.  Ettor  was  born  in  Brooklyn  about  twen- 
ty-six years  ago.  When  he  was  only  one  year  old, 
his  father,  who  was  a  militant  revolutionist,  took  him 
to  Chicago.  Ettor  senior  was  on  Haymarket  Square 
on  the  sinister  night  of  the  bomb  throwing  and  was 
severely  wounded. 

In  1906,  Ettor  was  heard  of  on  the  Pacific  Coast 
organizing  the  debris  workers  after  the  earthquake 
and  engaging  with  the  Pinkertons  in  various  squab- 
bles that  landed  him  in  the  lock-up.  At  the  time  of 
the  disaster,  Ettor  was  employed  in  the  shipyards  as 
an  ironworker. 

He  left  the  Golden  Gate  in  1907  to  travel  up  and 
down  the  Pacific  coast  as  an  organizer  for  the 
I.  W.  -W.  In  this  capacity  he  visited  many  lumber 
and  railroad  camps  and  was  more  than  once  warned 
to  leave  on  threat  of  being  killed.  He  came  East  and 
in  the  McKees  Rocks  strike  rose  to  prominence  owing 
to  his  fluency  in  several  languages,  for  the  strike  of 
the  Pressed  Steel  Car  Company's  men  was  waged 
almost  entirely  by  foreigners  and  unskilled  work- 
men. 

He  was  also  active  in  the  big  strike  which  af- 
fected Schwab's  steel  works  in  South  Bethlehem. 
He  inaugurated  new  strike  tactics,  employing  freely 
the  camera  to  gather  evidence  of  the  men's  lineup. 
He  also  directed  the  shoe  workers'  strike  in  Brook- 
lyn ;  when  this  was  over,  he  betook  himself  to  Law- 
rence, where  he  was  arrested  with  Giovannitti  and 
tried  as  accessory  to  the  murder  of  an  Italian  girl  who 


112  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

had  been  shot  during  a  street  riot.  He  was  kept  in 
jail  without  trial  much  longer  than  the  statutes  of 
Massachusetts  permitted  the  authorities  to  hold  him. 
It  was  feared  at  a  time  that  he  should  share  the  fate  of 
the  Chicago  anarchists.  Fortunately,  the  apparently 
well  founded  charges  that  certain  mill  owners  had 
"  planted "  evidence  damaging  to  the  workers,  dis- 
credited the  prosecution;  Ettor  and  Giovannitti  were 
acquitted. 

Arturo  Giovannitti,  the  poet  of  the  industrialist 
movement  was  born  twenty-nine  years  ago  in  Cam- 
pobasso  in  the  province  of  Abruzzi,  Italy.  He  came 
into  prominence  at  the  time  of  the  Lawrence  strike. 
During  his  confinement  in  the  Lawrence  jail,  he 
wrote  several  poems  among  others  "  The  Walker  "  and 
"  The  Cage  "  which  attracted  much  attention  when 
they  appeared  in  conservative  publications.  Giovan- 
nitti received  his  education  at  the  University  of  his 
native  city,  which  he  left  when  he  was  barely  sixteen. 
His  life  in  the  United  States  has  been  picturesque  and 
variegated.  He  was  in  turn  a  minter,  a  bookkeeper, 
a  theological  student,  a  mission  preacher,  a  tramp. 
For  four  years,  he  has  edited  II  Proldwdo,  an  indus- 
trialist weekly  of  New  York  City. 

William  E.  Trautman,  who  has  been  especially 
active  in  organizing  the  Brewery  Workers  was  born 
in  New  Zealand,  forty-four  years  ago.  After  his 
father's  death  in  a  mine  disaster,  he  was  sent  to 
school  in  Germany.  He  worked  as  a  brewer  in  sev- 
eral parts  of  Germany  and  Eussia.  In  1892  he  came 
to  the  United  States  where  his  wide  experience  and 


his  linguistic  ability  have  made  him  one  of  the  most 
useful  workers  in  cosmopolitan  communities.  Traut- 
man  is  not  only  a  clever  organizer,  but  a  clear  thinker 
and  his  pamphlets  on  Why  Strikes  are  Lost,  One  Big 
Union,  Direct  Action  and  Sabotage,  are  forceful  ex- 
positions of  the  American  industrialist  methods. 

Another  picturesque  and  attractive  character 
among  the  I.  W.  W.  organizers  is  Elizabeth  Gurley 
Flynn,  who  has  been  called  the  Joan  of  Arc  of  labor 
wars,  and  who  seems  destined  some  day  to  succeed 
Mother  Jones  as  the  foremost  woman  agitator.  Hav- 
ing lost  count  of  the  various  occasions  on  which  she 
has  been  jailed,  she  points  with  pride  to  her  Irish 
ancestors,  who  for  six  generations  incurred  at  regular 
intervals  the  displeasure  of  the  British  authorities 
and  paid  frequent  visits  to  political  lockups  of  the 
Emerald  Isle. 

Born  in  Concord,  N.  H.,  in  1890,  she  has  been  for 
eight  years  an  active  labor  agitator.  At  fifteen  she 
tried  her  hand  at  organizing  by  starting  a  socialist 
group  made  up  of  her  classmates  at  the  Morris  High 
School,  New  York  City.  Then  she  began  to  address 
crowds  at  street  corners  and  in  1907,  being  then  sev- 
enteen years  of  age,  was  arrested  for  the  first  time 
for  obstructing  the  traffic  at  Thirty-eighth  Street  and 
Broadway,  New  York. 

Two  years  later,  in  1909,  she  was  in  Spokane  and 
with  500  other  members  of  the  I.  W.  W.  remained  in 
jail  until  the  tax  payers,  weary  of  being  assessed  for 
their  maintenance,  had  all  the  speakers  released  and 
granted  them  full  freedom  of  speech.  She  has  been 


114  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

active  in  the  Eastern  strikes  and  played  quite  an  im- 
portant part  in  the  Lawrence  strike. 

The  industrialist  idea  is  gaining  headway  among 
many  unions  affiliated  with  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor.  The  A.  F.  of  L.  which  had  thus  far  ig- 
nored entirely  the  unskilled  workers  has  begun  to 
organize  them,  especially  in  the  sections  of  the  coun- 
try where  the  I.  W.  W.  has  been  active. 

The  American  Federation  of  Labor  has  never 
claimed  that  its  membership  included  more  than 
seven  per  cent,  of  the  working  class  of  America ;  con- 
sidering the  importance  which  unskilled  labor  is  as- 
suming in  the  United  States,  owing  to  the  constantly 
growing  use  of  machinery  in  every  industry,  the 
unions  of  skilled  craftsmen  can  no  longer  hold  their 
own.  Much  discontent  has  been  caused  within  the 
ranks  of  the  A.  F.  of  L.  by  the  fact  that  during 
strikes,  one  craft  is  allowed  to  "  scab "  on  another 
craft  and  that,  furthermore,  crafts  have  from  time 
to  time  been  disciplined  for  striking  in  sympathy 
with  other  crafts.  A  glaring  instance  of  this  lack  of 
solidarity  was  observed  during  the  recent  newspaper 
strike  in  Chicago.  When  the  pressmen  were  locked 
out  by  the  Chicago  Newspaper  Association,  news- 
boys, newspaper  wagon  drivers  and  stereotypers 
struck  in  sympathy.  Thereupon,  tfye  stereotypera 
were  expelled  from  the  International  Union  of  which 
they  were  members  while  a  charter  was  granted  to 
the  strike  breakers  who  had  taken  their  places. 

At  the  convention  of  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor  in  November,  1912,  the  delegates  of  the  United 


IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  1151 

Mine  Workers,  acting  under  instructions,  offered  a 
resolution  committing  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor  to  approval  of  industrial  organization  in- 
stead of  the  present  organization  by  crafts.  The 
resolution  was  referred  to  the  committee  on  educa- 
tion which  drew  up  a  majority  and  a  minority  report. 
The  majority  report  reaffirmed  the  present  attitude 
of  the  Federation  and  reaffirmed  the  system  of  craft 
organization.  The  minority  report  recommended, 

.  .  .  that  where  practicable  one  organization  should  have 
jurisdiction  over  an  industry,  and  where,  in  the  judgment 
of  the  majority  of  the  men  actually  involved,  it  is  not  prac- 
ticable, then  the  committee  recommends  that  they  organize 
and  federate  in  a  department  and  work  together  in  such 
manner  as  to  protect,  as  far  as  possible,  the  interests  of  all 
connecting  branches.' 

For  an  entire  day  a  conflict  raged  over  this  resolu- 
tion for,  under  the  rules  of  the  convention,  the  mi- 
nority report  had  to  be  considered  first  and  voted  on. 
When  the  vote  was  taken,  the  old  order  was  sustained 
by  a  vote  of  about  two  to  one. 

When  we  consider,  however,  that  the  New  Union- 
ism was  openly  favored  at  the  convention  by  many 
men  prominent  in  the  councils  of  the  Federation, 
among  them  being  John  Mitchell,  John  P.  White, 
Frank  Hayes  and  Duncan  McDonald,  we  gather  the 
impression  that  the  Federation  will  either  have  to 
yield  to  economic  necessity  and  reorganize  or  be  crip- 
pled by  a  landslide  which  would  throw  the  balance 
of  power  on  the  side  of  the  I.  W.  W.  The  attitude 
of  the  United  Mine  Workers,  of  the  Brewery  Work- 
ers and  especially  of  the  Building  Trades  and  of  the 


116  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

Metal  Trades  which  have  been  organized  in  Depart- 
ments within  the  A.  F.  of  L.  are  symptoms  whose 
importance  the  observer  cannot  minimize. 

Only  a  few  months  after  that  momentous  conven- 
tion, on  February  1,  1913,  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor  surprised  the  labor  world  by  announcing 
its  plans  for  "  a  nation  wide  campaign  the  purpose  of 
which  is  to  organize  all  the  unorganized  workers  and 
to  enroll  immigrants  as  soon  as  they  land  in  this 
country." 

The  campaign  will  be  waged  among  foreigners  as 
well  as  Americans  and  500,000  pamphlets  telling  of 
the  object  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor, 
printed  in  thirteen  languages  —  Russian,  French, 
Italian,  German,  Danish,  Swedish,  Portuguese, 
Polish,  Lithuanian,  Hungarian,  Spanish,  Slovak  and 
English  —  will  be  distributed. 

As  a  large  part  of  the  organized  labor  contingent 
in  this  country  consists  of  the  so-called  "  hobo " 
workers  who  travel  from  one  section  of  the  country 
to  the  other,  following  the  fluctuations  of  the  labor 
market,  the  system  of  craft  organization  will  un- 
doubtedly have  to  be  modified  by  the  introduction  of 
free  transfer  cards,  for  the  hobo  worker  changes  his 
occupation  almost  every  six  months.  Neither  could 
the  unskilled  and  the  newly  landed  immigrant  be 
prevailed  upon  to  join  craft  unions  unless  entrance 
fee  and  monthly  dues  were  strictly  nominal.  Be- 
tween a  group  of  craft  unions  with  nominal  cash  re- 
quirements and  universal  transfer  cards  and  on  the 
other  hand  a  purely  industrial  union,  the  difference 
will  be  very_  insignificant. 


IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  11T 

The  development  of  the  New  Unionism  has  been 
watched  with  interest  by  the  colored  workers  of  the 
United  States  who,  welcomed  at  first  by  the  early 
labor  organizations,  have  suffered  many  disappoint- 
ments at  the  hands  of  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor  and  of  the  Socialist  Party. 

Soon  after  the  Civil  War,  labor  organizations  un- 
derstood that  unless  they  admitted  the  colored  man 
to  membership  they  would  face  a  new  danger;  the 
negro  would  specialize  as  a  strike  breaker.  On 
August  19,  1866,  the  National  Labor  Union  called 
upon  "  all  laborers  of  whatever  nationality,  creed  or 
color,  skilled  or  unskilled,  to  join  hands  with  us." 
In  1869,  the  Knights  of  Labor  was  organized  and  dis- 
carded all  distinction  of  "  race,  creed  or  color."  The 
A.  F.  of  L.  began  by  following  the  same  policy,  but 
very  soon  adopted  the  system  of  separate  unions  and, 
in  1902*  passed  a  resolution  excluding  colored 
men  from  local  unions,  city  or  central  labor  bodies, 
etc. 

Many  socialist  locals  of  the  South  have  kept  the 
negro  out  as  a  matter  of  policy  to  avoid  clashes  with 
their  white  neighbors. 

In  decided  contrast  with  the  exclusiveness  of  un- 
ions and  locals,  the  I.  W.  W.  groups  of  the  South  have 
a  mixed  membership  and  the  solidarity  of  both  races 
during  the  Southern  Timber  Workers'  strike  has  done 
a  good  deal  towards  destroying  in  both  races  the  feel- 
ing that  the  negro  is  naturally  destined  to  break  the 
strikes  of  white  workers. 

The  American  Socialist  party  has  observed  witht 
.displeasure  the  growth  of  the  New  Unionism,  not  be- 


118  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

cause  the  alms  of  socialism  and  syndicalism  differ  in 
any  essentials  but  rather  because  the  Socialist  party 
finds  a  stronger  ally,  financially  and  otherwise  in  the 
A.  F.  of  L.  than  in  the  I.  W.  W.  While  it  has  not 
ostracized  industrialism  as  such,  as  the  English  and 
the  German  parties  have  done,  its  last  Congress  held 
in  June,  1912,  at  Indianapolis,  adopted  a  resolution 
introduced  by  Morris  Hillquit  of  New  York,  accord- 
ing to  which  any  member  of  the  party  who  opposes 
political  action  or  advocates  sabotage  as  a  weapon  of 
the  working  class  to  aid  in  its  emancipation,  shall  be 
expelled  from  membership  in  the  party. 

This  can  be  diplomatically  interpreted  as  allowing 
the  party  to  retain  the  silent  rank  and  file  of  the 
I.  W.  W.  as  dues  paying  members  while  the  few  indi- 
vidual leaders  whose  public  utterances  might  be 
favorable  to  direct  action  and  unfavorable  to  parlia- 
mentary action  can  be  singled  out  for  exemplary 
punishment. 

While  members  of  the  party  who  countenance 
sabotage  have  not  been  molested  (for  instance,  mem- 
bers of  the  Pittsburgh  branch  who  advocated  it  re- 
cently in  their  fight  with  a  certain  department  store) , 
charges  have  been  brought  against  Haywood.  And 
yet  Haywood  has  never  declared  himself  as  openly 
and  brutally  as  the  French  syndicalists  (see  Chapter 
on  Sabotage)  or  even  Tom  Mann  on  the  subject  of 
eabotage  and  parliamentary  action.  In  an  address 
on  the  general  strike  delivered  in  New  York  City  in 
August,  1911,  he  sang  the  praise  of  the  general  strike 
but  did  not  exactly  discountenance  the  use  of  the  bal- 
lot. He  said : 


IN  THE  TTMTED  STATES          110 

There  are  vote-getters  and  politicians  who  waste  their 
time  coming  into  a  community  where  ninety  per  cent,  of 
the  men  have  no  vote,  where  the  women  are  disfranchised 
100  per  cent.,  and  where  the  boys  and  girls  under  age,  of 
course,  are  not  enfranchised.  Still  they  will  speak  to  these 
people  about  the  power  of  the  ballot,  and  they  never  men- 
tion a  thing  about  the  power  of  the  general  strike.  They 
seem  to  lack  the  foresight,  the  penetration  to  interpret  polit- 
ical power.  They  seem  to  lack  the  understanding  that  the 
broadest  interpretation  of  political  power  comes  through 
the  industrial  organization ;  that  the  industrial  organization 
is  capable  not  only  of  the  general  strike,  but  prevents  the 
capitalists  from  disfranchising  the  worker;  it  gives  the  vote 
to  women,  it  re-enfranchises  the  black  man  and  places  the 
ballot  in  the  hands  of  every  boy  and  girl  employed  in  a 
shop,  makes  them  eligible  to  take  part  in  the  general  strike, 
makes  them  eligible  to  legislate  for  themselves  where  they 
are  most  interested  in  changing  conditions,  namely,  in  the 
place  where  they  work. 

He  added  in  another  part  of  the  same  speech : 

There  isn't  any  one,  Socialist,  S.  L.  P.,  Industrial  Worker, 
or  any  other  workingman  or  woman,  no  matter  what  society 
you  belong  to,  but  what  believes  in  the  ballot.  There  are 
those  —  and  I  am  one  of  them  —  who  refuse  to  have  the 
ballot  interpreted  for  them.  I  know,  or  think  I  know,  the 
power  of  it,  and  I  know  that  the  industrial  organization,  as 
I  stated  in  the  beginning,  is  its  broadest  interpretation.  I 
know,  too,  that  when  the  workers  are  brought  together  in  a 
great  organization  they  are  not  going  to  cease  to  vote.  That 
is  when  the  workers  will  begin  to  vote,  to  vote  for  directors 
to  operate  the  industries  in  which  they  are  all  employed. 

In  a  booklet,  Industrial  Socialism,  written  by  Hay- 
wood  in  collaboration  with  the  more  conservative 
Frank  Bohn,  we  read  the  following  which,  like  the 
first  preamble  of  the  I.  W.  W.;  seems  to  be  an  awk- 


120  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

ward  attempt  at  reconciling  Socialism  and  Industrial- 
ism: 

The  great  purpose  of  the  Socialist  Party  is  to  seize  the 
powers  of  government  and  thus  prevent  them  from  being 
used  by  the  capitalists  against  the  workers.  With  Socialists 
in  political  offices  the  workers  can  strike  and  not  be  shot. 
They  can  picket  shops  and  not  be  arrested  and  imprisoned. 
Freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press,  now  often  abolished  by 
the  tyrannical  capitalists,  will  be  secured  to  the  working 
class.  Then  they  can  continue  the  shop  organization  and 
the  education  of  the  workers.  To  win  the  demands  made  on 
the  industrial  field,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  control  the 
government,  as  experience  shows  strikes  to  have  been  lost 
through  the  interference  of  courts  and  militia.  The  same 
functions  of  government,  controlled  by  a  class-conscious 
working  class,  will  be  used  to  inspire  confidence  and  com- 
pel the  wheels  of  industry  to  move  in  spite  of  the  devices 
and  stumbling  blocks  of  the  capitalists. 

The  Socialist  Party  is  not  a  political  party  in  the  same 
sense  as  other  parties.  The  success  of  Socialism  would  abol- 
ish practically  every  office  existing  under  the  present  form 
of  government.  Councils,  legislatures  and  congresses  would 
not  be  composed  principally  of  lawyers,  as  they  are  now, 
whose  highest  ambition  seems  to  be  to  enact  laws  with  loop- 
holes in  them  for  the  rich.  But  the  legislatures  of  the  work- 
ers would  be  composed  of  men  and  women  representing  the 
different  branches  of  industry  and  their  work  would  be  to 
improve  the  conditions  of  labor,  to  minimize  the  expenditure 
of  labor-power,  and  to  increase  production. 

Contrast  the  foregoing  with  what  Haywood  and 
Bohn  have  to  say  of  reforms,  which  after  all  are  the 
only  immediate  result  of  political  action : 

Socialism  has  no  concern  with  the  numberless  social  re- 
forms which  the  capitalists  are  now  preaching  in  order  to 
gave  their  miserable  profit  system. 


IN  THE  TOTTED  STATES          12U 

Old  age  pensions  are  not  Socialism.  The  workers  had 
much  better  fight  for  higher  wages  and  shorter  hours.  Old 
age  pensions  under  the  present  government  are  either  char- 
ity doled  out  to  paupers,  or  bribes  given  to  voters  by  poli- 
ticians. Self-respecting  workers  despise  such  means  of  sup- 
port. Free  meals  or  cent  meals  for  poverty  stricken  school 
children  are  not  Socialism.  Industrial  freedom  will  enable 
parents  to  give  their  children  solid  food  at  home.  Free 
food  to  the  workers  cuts  wages  and  kills  the  fighting  spirit. 

William  E.  Trautman  in  Direct  Action  and 
Sabotage  admits  of  parliamentary  action  as  a  means 
of  minimizing  the  dangers  of  direct  action : 

With  the  law-making  and  law-executing  agencies  of  capi- 
talism as  guardians  of  capitalist  interests,  out  of  the  way, 
the  foundation  may  be  easier  undermined.  It  must  even  be 
conceded  that  political  parties,  exercising  the  mandates  of 
the  working  class,  may  be  able  to  remove  the  most  pernicious 
opponents  to  the  rights  of  the  producers  to  the  jobs  and  all 
the  proceeds  of  that  job,  and  place  in  their  stead  advocates 
of  working  class  interests.  But  then,  this  should  never  di- 
vert the  activities  of  the  workers  from  aiming  constantly 
and  directly  at  the  foundation  of  all  these  agencies,  the  eco- 
nomic power  of  the  oppressors  and  exploiters.  A  political 
party  claiming  to  represent  the  toilers  may  have  its  func- 
tionaries in  the  law-making  and  law-executing  agencies. 
But  it  should  be  for  the  purpose  alone  to  facilitate  the  for- 
mation of  class  organization  of  workers  for  the  attack 
against  the  seat  of  capitalist  power,  to  wit:  the  monopoly 
over  the  places  of  employment. 

The  I.  W.  W.  press,  that  is  the  Industrial  Worker, 
a  weekly  published  in  Spokane,  and  Solidarity,  a 
weekly  published  in  New  Castle,  are  more  outspoken. 
We  quote  from  an  editorial  in  Solidarity  for  Decem- 
ber 21,  1912: 


122  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

Our  members  can  "  vote  "  if  they  want  to,  but  I  haven't 
voted  at  an  election  since  1900  and  probably  never  will 
again. 

The  I.  W.  W.  is  not  a  political  party.  It  is  a  labor  union, 
that  aims  to  unite  all  the  workers  of  the  world  at  the  places 
where  they  work  —  in  the  shops,  mills,  mines,  factories, 
railroads,  farms,  and  everywhere  that  wealth  is  produced  — 
in  order  (1st)  to  fight  the  owners  for  better  conditions,  such 
as  more  wages,  a  shorter  workday,  etc.,  and  (2nd)  through 
these  industrial  unions,  to  develop  the  class  spirit  of  the 
workers  and  drill  them  to  the  point  where  they  (the  work- 
ers) will  be  able  to  seize  the  workshops  and  operate  them 
for  themselves,  thus  compelling  the  Rockefellers  and  other 
capitalists  to  go  to  work. 

This  is  different  from  the  Socialist  Party,  which  teaches 
that  the  workers  are  going  to  vote  themselves  into  control  of 
the  government  and  then  use  the  government  to  run  the  in- 
dustries. The  I.  W.  W.  fights  that  idea,  because  we  know 
that  government  ownership  would  be  essentially  the  same 
kind,  or  a  worse,  slavery  than  now  exists  under  private 
ownership. 

The  politicians  in  the  Socialist  Party,  who  want  offices  in 
the  government,  fight  the  I.  W.  W.  because  we  have  no  place 
in  our  ranks  for  them,  and  if  our  idea  prevails,  it  will 
crowd  them  out  and  destroy  their  influence  as  "  saviours  of 
the  working  class."  These  politicians  cater  for  votes  to  the 
middle  class  —  to  business  men,  farm  owners  and  other  small 
labor  skinners  —  while  the  I.  W.  W.  appeals  only  to  wage 
workers,  and  allows  none  but  actual  wage  workers  to  join 
our  ranks.  The  Socialists  can  never  get  a  majority  of  votes 
for  a  working  class  programme  (if  they  had  such  a  pro- 
gramme) because  the  majority  of  voters  are  middle  class, 
since  about  ten  million  male  wage  workers  are  disfranchised 
(being  foreigners  or  floaters  without  long  enough  residence 
in  one  place  to  have  votes).  But  the  wage  workers  are  a 
big  majority  of  the  whole  people,  and  produce  nearly  all 
wealth,  so  when  they  organize  as  the  I.  W.  W.  proposes,  the 
working  class  will  control  the  country,  and  with  similar 


IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  123 

organizations  in  other  countries  will  control  the  world. 
Foreigners,  women,  children  and  other  non-voters  at  elec- 
tions, have  equal  rights  in  the  union,  and  can  take  part  in 
its  activities,  regardless  of  nationality,  age,  sex,  or  any 
other  consideration  except  that  they  are  wage  workers  with 
common  interests  in  opposition  to  those  of  the  employers. 

As  far  as  sabotage  is  concerned,  all  the  I.  W.  W. 
speakers  and  the  I.  W.  W.  press  countenance  it  al- 
though they  steadily  warn  the  workers  against  the 
indiscriminate  and  unsocial  use  of  that  weapon  of 
warfare. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    NEW    UNIONISM    IN   ENGLAND:  SYNDICALISM 

THE  ideas  which  were  to  foster  the  birth  of  the 
New  Unionism  in  England  can  be  traced  back  to  the 
Chartist  movement  and  Robert  Owen's  theories. 
Theoretically  what  the  Chartists  demanded  was 
merely  political  reform;  in  reality  every  speech  de- 
livered by  their  leaders  pointed  to  the  impotence  of 
parliament  to  deal  with  the  labor  problems  of  the 
day.  "  Where  are  the  fine  promises  they  made 
you  ? "  a  Chartist  orator  asked  his  audience. 
"  Cheap  bread  they  cry,  but  they  mean  low  wages. 
Do  not  listen  to  their  cant  and  humbug." 

Owen's  cure  for  the  terrible  conditions  obtaining 
in  England  in  the  thirties  and  forties  was  a  General 
Federation  of  the  Workers'  Unions  which  would  take 
over  and  operate  all  the  national  industries.  The 
idea  of  direct  action  and  of  a  general  strike  however 
must  have  moved  obscurely  the  minds  of  many  work- 
ers. The  riots  of  the  year  1842  when  a  million  and 
a  half  people  or  one-eleventh  of  the  population  had 
to  be  given  poor  relief  and  when  three  attempts  were 
made  upon  the  Queen's  life  within  three  months,  re- 
vealed the  anarchic  despair  which  was  to  be  system- 
atized into  direct  action.  In  1848  leaders  of  the 
laboring  classes  endeavoring  to  obtain  political  re- 
forms from  parliament  did  not  rely  upon  persuasion 

124 


IN  EKGLAND:  SYNDICALISM        125 

so  mucH  as  upon  the  fear  which  a  display  of  popular 
violence  might  strike  into  the  hearts  of  the  repre- 
sentatives. To  a  display  of  popular  violence,  how- 
ever, the  Duke  of  Wellington  answered  by  a  display 
of  regular  troops  guarding  Westminster  palace.  The 
unorganized  mob  shrunk  back  and  sent  a  meek  peti- 
tion to  the  M.  P.'s  whom  it  had  first  intended  to  cow; 
into  submission. 

Friedrich  Engels  wrote  confidently  in  1847  that 
"  the  Chartist  movement  must  inevitably  lead  to  so- 
cialism." It  apparently  led  to  nothing  more  radical 
than  trade  unionism.  It  was  not  until  the  year  1910 
that  syndicalist  ideas  began  once  more  to  permeate 
the  masses  of  English  workers. 

The  rise  in  prices  which  according  to  Kautsky 
(Neue  Zeii,  June  11,  1911)  was  six  per  cent,  from 
1900  to  1908,  coinciding  with  a  sharp  decline  in 
wages  had  much  to  do  with  the  labor  unrest  of  1910. 
A  series  of  sudden  strikes  affected  the  railroads,  the 
shipyards,  the  mills  and  the  mines.  Those  dis- 
turbances did  not  abate  in  1911  and  were  character- 
ized by  the  fact  that  the  initiative,  in  almost  every 
case,  came  from  the  men  who  struck  against  the 
wishes  of  their  leaders.  The  reasons  for  the  lead- 
ers' conservative  attitude  in  certain  cases  are 
disclosed  by  an  article  published  in  the  Daily 
Herald  of  London  for  December  11,  1912.  It 
came  out  that  a  large  part  of  the  reserve  fund  of  the 
Amalgamated  Society  of  Railroad  Unions  had  been 
invested  in  stock  of  eleven  British  railroad  compan- 
ies, several  of  which  had  been  the  bitterest  opponents 
of  unionism. 


126  ,THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

If  many  other  unions  have  been  guilty  of  such 
lack  of  financial  wisdom  it  can  readily  be  understood 
that  the  leaders  bent  on  "  showing  good  results  "  at 
the  end  of  the  year  are  loath  to  countenance  any  move 
which  could  cause  the  union's  holdings  to  shrink. 

In  1910  and  1911  it  became  apparent  that  the  vari- 
ous unions  were  drawing  more  closely  towards  one 
another.  The  unskilled  workers  were  no  longer  ig- 
nored but  they  were  organized  for  the  first  time  as  a 
fighting  machine.  William  D.  Haywood's  visit  to 
England  in  1910  and  Tom  Mann's  return  from  Aus- 
tralia in  the  same  year  were  instrumental  in  attract- 
ing the  attention  of  both  organized  and  unorganized 
workers  to  the  need  of  new  tactics. 

The  trade  union  congress  of  1910  was  moved  by 
Ben  Tillett  to  pass  the  following  resolution  which 
was  afterwards  endorsed  on  referendum  by  1,175,000 
votes  against  256,000: 

The  present  system  of  sectional  trade  unionism  is  unable 
to  successfully  combat  the  encroachments  of  modern  capital- 
ism, and  while  recognizing  the  usefulness  of  sectional  union- 
ism in  the  past  and  present,  the  congress  realizes  that  much 
greater  achievements  are  possible  and  the  redemption  of  the 
working  class  would  be  hastened  if  all  the  existing  unions 
were  amalgamated  by  industries,  with  one  central  executive, 
elected  by  the  combined  unions,  and  with  power  to  act 
unitedly,  whenever  there  is  a  strike  or  lock  out  in  any  in- 
dustry, thus  making  the  grievance  of  one  the  concern  of  all. 
The  congress  therefore  instructs  its  parliamentary  commit- 
tee to  put  themselves  in  communication  with  all  the  trade 
unions  in  Great  Britain  and  ascertain  their  views  on  the 
above  question,  also  to  promote  a  general  scheme  of  amalga- 
mation and  make  a  recommendation  on  the  matter  to  the 
next  congress. 


IN  ENGLAOT):  SYNDICALISM        127 

The  leader  who  is  chiefly  responsible  for  this 
deep  change  in  the  policies  of  the  trade  unions  is 
Tom  Mann.  He  was  born  in  Warwickshire  in  1856. 
At  ten  he  went  to  work  in  the  mines  and  barely  es- 
caped with  his  life  from  a  mine  fire.  At  twelve  he 
became  an  apprentice  engineer  at  the  very  time  when 
engineers  had  obtained  their  Sunday  rest  and  a  con- 
siderable reduction  in  the  number  of  working  hours. 
This  enabled  him  to  acquire  some  education.  He 
came  into  prominence  in  1889  when  he  organized  the 
successful  strike  of  the  gas  workers.  In  the  fall  of 
that  year  the  great  dockers'  strike  took  place.  Mann 
assumed  control  of  it  assisted  by  Ben  Tillett,  secre- 
tary of  the  union,  and  John  Burns  who  was  after- 
wards  to  emulate  Briand's  conduct. 

Soon  after  Mann  left  the  position  of  secretary  of 
the  Independent  Labor  Party  and  became  president 
of  the  Transport  Workers  Federation.  In  order  to 
acquaint  himself  with  the  transport  situation  in  Eu- 
rope he  visited  every  port  of  importance,  being  ex- 
pelled from  several  continental  countries. 

In  1901,  following  Henry  D.  Lloyd's  advice,  he 
went  to  Australia  which  was  then  commonly  repre- 
sented as  the  workers'  paradise.  What  Mann  thinks 
of  that  paradise  is  related  in  the  chapter  relative  to 
Australia.  The  Australian  Labor  Government  had 
him  placed  under  arrest  and  kept  him  locked  up  for 
six  months. 

Mann  had  left  England  a  believer  in  parliamentary 
action  and  in  trade  unionism.  He  returned  to  Eng- 
land a  direct  actionist  and  industrialist.  In  his 
propaganda,  however,  he  followed  the  methods  ap- 


if: 


128  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

plied  by  the  French  Confederation  of  Labor.  He 
was  careful  not  to  antagonize  the  existing  trade  union 
movement.  His  aim  was  to  induce  the  unions  to 
open  their  doors  to  the  unorganized  and  unskilled 
and  to  federate  or  amalgamate  themselves  into  larger 
bodies  as  inclusive  as  the  industries  in  which  they 
were  employed.  He  never  organized  new  unions,  not 
even  when  one  category  of  workers  was  unorganized 
as  were,  for  example,  the  waterside  workers  in  Dub- 
lin. He  organized  them  not  into  a  new  union  but 
as  a  new  organism  within  the  already  existing  Na- 
tional Transport  Workers  Federation.1 

i  This  is  what  H.  M.  Hyndman  writes  of  Tom  Mann  in  his 
"Further  Reminiscences,"  published  recently: 

;"  Tom  Mann  is  the  boldest,  most  vehement,  and  most  stir- 
ring agitator  I  have  ever  known.  His  dark  black  hair,  his 
fiery  eyes,  his  energetic  face  and  figure,  give  Mann  a  dis- 
tinctly foreign  appearance.  For  life,  go,  humor,  vigor,  in- 
exhaustible and  unflagging  energy,  I  have  never  met  Tom 
Mann's  equal.  After  spending  the  whole  of  the  daytime  in 
speaking,  organizing,  persuading,  denouncing,  pervading  the 
whole  area  of  disturbance  to  an  extent  that  make  him  appear 
ubiquitous,  after  a  display  of  zeal  and  a  manifestation  of  en- 
thusiasm enough  to  have  exhausted  half-a-dozen  good  men, 
Tom  turned  up  at  tea  or  supper  as  gay  and  cheery  and  full 
of  life  as  if  he  had  done  no  work  at  all.  For  a  good  deal 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  Tom  Mann  has  been  carry- 
ing on  this  way,  not  only  in  England,  but  in  Australia  and 
elsewhere.  And  his  knowledge  and  charm  of  manner  are 
equal  to  his  marvelous  vitality.  Moreover,  of  all  the  Labor 
leaders  I  have  ever  met,  Tom  Mann  is  the  one  man  who,  how- 
ever successful  he  may  be,  puts  on  the  least  '  side.'  After  a 
speech  which  has  aroused  his  audience  to  almost  hysterical 
enthusiasm,  down  Tom  will  step  from  the  platform  and  take 
names  for  the  organization  or  sell  literature  to  all  and  sun- 
dry, as  if  he  were  the  least  considered  person  at  the  gather- 
ing. Even  those  who  differ  from  him  most  widely  cannot  but 
respect  him." 


him."X^ 


IN  ENGLAND:  SYNDICALISM        129' 

In  one  of  the  pamphlets  issued  by  Tom  Mann  un- 
der the  general  title  of  The  Industrial  Syndicalist,  he 
describes  the  present  situation  as  follows: 

The  present  situation  is  unique  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
Never  before  has  there  been  so  extensive  a  movement,  which, 
surmounting  the  barrier  of  nationality,  is  consciously  striv- 
ing forward  to  the  next  stage  in  the  evolution  of  mankind, 
where  competition  will  have  to  give  way  to  cooperation  as 
surely  as  primitive  society  has  had  to  give  way  to  civiliza- 
tion. .  .  .  Most  of  us  have  been  all  along  ready  and  willing 
to  take  our  share  of  work  in  any  direction  making  for  the 
advance  of  our  ideal,  viz.,  the  abolition  of  poverty  by  the 
abolition  of  capitalism  (not  as  some  of  our  intelligent  critics 
say,  by  the  abolition  of  capital).  .  .  .  Trade  unionism  as  un- 
derstood at  present  is  powerless  to  emancipate  the  workers; 
its  fatal  weakness  is  to  be  found  simply  if  not  solely,  in  the 
sectional  character  of  the  eleven  hundred  unions  of  the 
United  Kingdom  —  in  the  complete  absence  of  the  true 
spirit  of  working  class  solidarity  and,  therefore  in  the  in- 
ability of  the  unionists  to  utilize  the  machinery  at  their  dis- 
posal for  scientifically  conducting  the  class  war.  ...  In 
the  case  of  the  engineering  and  shipbuilding  industry,  the 
action  of  the  masters  is  aimed  to  cover,  and  succeeds  in  cov- 
ering, the  whole  of  those  workers  in  the  establishments 
owned  by  them,  no  matter  how  many  trades  there  may  be. 
It  is  the  entire  shipbuilding  industry  they  are  after,  and  so 
they  take  care  to  act  concertedly  over  the  whole  industry, 
and  this  covers  some  twenty  different  trades,  organized  into 
some  twenty-four  different  unions.  These  twenty-four 
unions  have  never  been  able  to  take  combined  action  against 
the  capitalists.  Hence  this  weakness  .  .  .  the  trade  union 
movement  must  be  revolutionary  .  .  .  and  as  regards  meth- 
ods, must  refuse  to  enter  into  any  long  time  agreements  with 
the  masters  whether  with  legal  or  state  backing,  or  merely 
voluntary. 

His  pamphlet  No.  &  repeats  the  warning  against 


130  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

long  agreements  and  the  promises  to  give  employers 
notice  when  an  increase  in  wages  is  to  be  demanded: 

The  capitalists,  being  so  politely  and  considerately  warned 
beforehand,  are  able  to  stock  goods  in  such  quantities  that 
by  the  time  the  notice  of  the  operators  expires  they  can 
defy  them  to  do  their  worst. 

.Victory  cannot  be  gained,  however,  until  there  is 
complete  solidarity  between  the  so-called  skilled  and 
the  unskilled  workers.  We  quote  from  his  pam- 
phlet No.  4: 

The  first  work  of  the  skilled  workers,  even  in  their  inter- 
est, ought  to  be  to  force  the  bringing  about  of  a  substantial 
raise  of  the  wage  standard  of  the  unskilled,  and  by  this 
means  they  will  have  destroyed  the  strongest  weapon  of  the 
employers. 

The  vast  majority  of  those  who  are  not  organized  [we 
read  in  his  pamphlet  No.  7]  are  the  unskilled.  .  .  .  They 
are  receiving  in  some  cases  one-half,  in  some  cases  not  more 
than  one-third  and  in  some  cases  not  one-fourth  of  the 
amount  received  by  their  fellow  workers  classed  as  skilled,  in 
the  same  work  shops,  shipyards  and  other  institutions.  .  .  . 
It  does  not  mean  that  there  will  be  any  action  tolerating  or 
approving  the  pulling  down  of  the  skilled  man's  pay.  But  it 
does  mean  that  with  the  unifying  of  the  unions  in  each  in- 
dustry, and  the  taking  of  common  action  embracing  all  la- 
borers, the  laborer  shall  receive  the  first  and  most  important 
attention  because  he  is  lowest  in  the  social  scale. 

The  following  passage  from  pamphlet  No.  5  is  es- 
pecially interesting  on  account  of  its  bearing  on  the 
miners'  strike: 

The  time  has  gone  by  when  reactionary  officials  are  to  be 
allowed  to  impede  working-class  advance;  it  is  really  a  case 
of  "get  on  and  lead,"  or  "get  out  and  follow";  and  the 
eooner  this  is  fully  realized  the  better  for  all  concerned. 


IN  ENGLAND:  SYNDICALISM 

I  desire  to  here  emphasize  the  fact  that  there  is  not  one 
coal-mine  in  the  legal  possession  of  the  working1  miners,  or 
indeed  of  any  body  of  workers  in  the  whole  of  Britain;  if 
there  is,  I  know  not  of  it;  yet  a  very  large  percentage  of 
the  miners  are  members  of  the  cooperative  movement,  and 
the  cooperative  movement  in  some  districts  is  burdened  with 
more  capital  than  can  be  advantageously  used. 

Many  of  the  trade  unions  invest  their  accumulated  funds 
in  distinctly  capitalist  business  concerns,  or  in  municipal 
corporation  stock;  surely  it  would  be  wise  on  the  part  of 
the  workers  in  the  cooperative  and  trade  unionist  movements 
to  get  complete  control  in  various  parts  of  the  country  of  a 
number  of  coal-mines,  from  which  their  own  household  sup- 
plies could  be  drawn  and  thus  ensure  supplies  during  a  dis- 
pute. 

In  his  letter  of  resignation  from  the  British  Social 
Democratic  party,  Tom  Mann  expressed  unequivo- 
cally his  contempt  for  parliamentary  action: 

After  the  most  careful  reflection  I  am  driven  to  the  be- 
lief that  the  real  reason  why  the  trade  unionist  movement  in 
this  country  is  in  such  a  deplorable  state  of  inefficiency  is  to 
be  found  in  the  fictitious  importance  which  the  workers 
have  been  encouraged  to  attach  to  parliamentary  action. 

I  find  nearly  all  the  serious-minded  young  men  in  the  La- 
bor and  Socialist  movement  have  their  minds  centered  upon 
obtaining  some  position  in  public  life,  such  as  local,  munici- 
pal, or  county  councilorship,  or  filling  some  governmental 
office,  or  aspiring  to  become  a  member  of  parliament. 

I  am  driven  to  the  belief  that  this  is  entirely  wrong,  and 
that  economic  liberty  will  never  be  realized  by  such  means. 
So  I  declare  in  favor  of  Direct  Industrial  Organization,  not 
as  a  means  but  as  the  means  whereby  the  workers  can  ulti- 
mately overthrow  the  capitalist  system  and  become  the 
actual  controllers  of  their  own  industrial  and  social  destiny. 

Later  he  wrote  in  The  Syndicalist  for  November, 
1912; 


132  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

Those  who  know  the  real  attitude  of  syndicalists  towards 
parliament,  know  full  well  that  our  ignoring  of  parlia- 
mentary methods  is  not  as  the  manifesto  states,  because  the 
present  Labor  Party  in-  the  House  of  Commons  has  failed 
to  voice  the  real  needs  of  the  people.  Our  objection  is  a 
much  more  serious  one,  it  is  that  parliament  is  part  of  the 
decaying  capitalist  re'gime,  an  institution  wholly  unsuited 
to  afford  the  workers  opportunities  of  getting  control  of  the 
industries  and  the  wealth  produced  by  the  workers  in  these 
industries.  We  look  upon  parliament  as  utterly  unsuited  to 
the  enabling  of  the  workers  to  apply  their  own  power  in  the 
controlling  and  ultimate  owning  of  all  wealth-producing 
agencies.  Many  members  of  the  B.  S.  P.  claim  for  parlia- 
ment that  it  is  an  excellent  platform  for  propaganda  pur- 
poses, but  they  frankly  admit  its  uselessness  for  the  purposes 
of  revolution  and  reconstruction  of  society.  We  declare  it 
to  be  not  of  the  smallest  value  that  there  should  be  a  few 
socialist  speeches  made  in  such  a  place.  Such  speeches 
would  give  the  workers  no  power  nor  would  they  send  fear 
to  the  hearts  of  the  capitalists.  Naturally  the  capitalists 
will  fear  nothing  until  they  find  they  are  losing  the  power 
to  control  the  working-class.  Our  syndicalist  method  is  the 
encouragement  of  the  working-class  to  control  itself.  There 
is  absolutely  no  agency  in  existence  or  projected  at  all  suit- 
able to  this  great  work  except  the  industrial  organizations  of 
the  workers.  These  unions  at  present  have  many  faults, 
many  officials  are  utterly  and  stupidly  reactionary ;  even  so, 
the  unions  have  all  the  essentials  for  enabling  the  workers 
to  actually  function  as  controllers  of  wealth  production,  and, 
what  is  equally  important,  of  wealth  distribution.  Indus- 
trial solidarity  is  the  one  and  only  all-powerful  agency 
through  which  and  by  which  work  will  be  controlled,  all  un- 
employment solved,  and  capitalist  exploitation  stopped  for- 
ever. 

Tom  Mann  is  opposed  to  parliamentary  action  for 
another  reason:  parliamentary  life  corrupts  the  mor- 


IN  ENGLAND:  SYNDICALISM        133 

als  of  the  revolutionists  and  transforms  them  speedily; 
into  mere  steady  bourgeois.     Says  Mann: 

The  most  moderate  and  fair-minded  are  compelled  to  de- 
clare that,  not  in  one  country  but  in  all,  a  large  proportion 
of  those  comrades  who,  prior  to  being  returned,  were  un- 
questionably revolutionary,  are  no  longer  so  after  spending 
a  few  years  in  parliament.  They  become  revolutionary, 
neither  in  their  attitude  towards  existing  society  nor  in  re- 
spect of  present-day  institutions.  Indeed,  it  is  no  exaggera- 
tion to  say  that  many  seem  to  have  constituted  themselves 
apologists  for  existing  society,  showing  such  a  degree  of 
studied  respect  for  bourgeois  conditions,  and  a  toleration  of 
bourgeois  methods,  that  destroys  the  probability  of  their  do- 
ing any  real  work  of  a  revolutionary  character. 

Mann's  ideas  on  sabotage  can  be  judged  from  a 
semi-humorous  speech  of  his  reported  in  the  Syndi- 
calist for  November,  1912 : 

Direct  action  must  be  used.  In  the  time  of  the  Israelites 
a  man  named  Moses  came  along  and  said  to  them,  "  Come, 
friends,  are  you  willing  to  revolt  against  your  terrible  con- 
ditions ?  "  "  Revolt,"  said  they,  "  what  do  you  mean "? " 
"  Why,"  said  Moses,  "  the  strike.  Use  direct  action,"  and 
he  went  from  one  to  another  of  the  twelve  tribes  and  ob- 
tained their  consent,  and  then  they  all  said  to  Pharaoh,  "  Let 
us  go."  But  the  capitalists  hardened  their  hearts  and  would 
not  let  them  go ;  then  Jehovah  applied  "  Sabotage,"  the 
plagues  of  lice,  darkness,  etc.,  and  finally  killed  their  eldest 
sons  to  punish  them  for  their  wickedness. 

Mann's  attitude  to  militarism  coincides  with  that 
of  the  Herveist  faction  in  the  French  C.  G.  T.  An 
Open  Letter  to  Soldiers  published  in  the  Syndicalist 
for  January,  1912,  caused  the  printers,  Benjamin  and 


134'  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

Charles  Buck,  and  the  editor,  Guy  Bowman,  to  be 
prosecuted  for  "  endeavoring  to  seduce  persons  serving 
in  Forces  of  His  Majesty  the  King  by  land  or  sea 
from  their  duty  and  allegiance  to  his  Majesty,  and 
inciting  them  to  traitorous  and  mutinous  practices." 
The  defendants  were  found  guilty  and  sentenced  to 
nine  months'  hard  labor.  Tom  Mann  then  declared 
himself  responsible  for  the  publication  of  the  letter 
and  he  too  was  found  guilty  and  sentenced  to  nine 
months'  hard  labor.  The  Open  Letter  to  Soldiers, 
reads  as  follows : 

OPEN  LETTER  TO  BRITISH  SOLDIERS. 

Men!  Comrades!  Brothers! 

You  are  in  the  army. 

So  are  WE.  You,  in  the  army  of  Destruction.  WE,  in 
the  Industrial,  or  army  of  Construction. 

WE  work  at  mine,  mill,  forge,  factory,  or  dock,  etc.,  pro- 
ducing and  transporting  all  the  goods,  clothing,  stuffs,  etc., 
which  make  it  possible  for  people  to  live. 

You  ABE  WORKINGMEN'S  SONS. 

WHEN  WE  go  on  Strike  to  better  OUR  lot,  which  is  the 
lot  also  of  YOUR  FATHERS,  MOTHERS,  BROTHERS  and  SIS- 
TERS, YOU  are  called  upon  by  your  officers  to  MURDER 
US. 

Don't  do  it  I 

You  know  how  it  happens.    Always  has  happened. 

We  stand  out  as  long  as  we  can.  Then  one  of  our  (and 
your)  irresponsible  Brothers,  goaded  by  the  sight  and 
thought  of  his  and  his  loved  ones'  misery  and  hunger,  com- 
mits a  crime  on  property.  Immediately  You  are  ordered  to 
MURDER  Us,  as  You  did  at  Mitehellstown,  at  Featherstone, 
at  Belfast. 

Don't  You  know,  that  when  You  are  out  of  the  colors 
and  become  a  "  Civy  "  again  that  You,  like  Us,  may  be  on 


IN  ENGLAND:  SYNDICALISM 

Strike,  and  You,  like  Us,  be  liable  to  be  MUEDEEED  by  other 
soldiers'? 

BOYS,  DON'T  Do  IT! 

"Tnou  SHALT  Nor  KILL,"  says  the  Book. 

DON'T  FORGET  THAT! 

It  does  not  say,  "unless  you  have  a  uniform  on." 

No!  MURDER  IS  MURDER,  whether  committed  in  the 
heat  of  anger  on  one  who  has  wronged  a  loved  one  or  by 
pipe-clayed  Tommies  with  rifles. 

BOYS,  DON'T  Do  IT! 

ACT  THE  MAN  !  ACT  THE  BROTHER  !  ACT  THE  HUMAN; 
BEING  ! 

Property  can  be  replaced !    Human  life,  never ! 

The  Idle  Rich  Class,  who  own  and  order  you  about,  own 
and  order  us  about  also.  They  and  their  friends  own  the 
land  and  means  of  life  of  Britain. 

You  DON'T.    WE  DON'T. 

When  WE  kick  they  order  You  to  MURDER  Us. 

When  You  kick  You  get  court-martialed  and  cells. 

YOUR  fight  is  OUR  fight.  Instead  of  fighting  AGAINST 
each  other  WE  should  be  fighting  WITH  each  other. 

Out  of  OUR  loins,  OUR  lives,  OUR  homes,  You  came. 

Don't  disgrace  YOUR  PARENTS,  YOUR  CLASS,  by  being  the 
willing  tools  any  longer  of  the  MASTER  CLASS. 

You,  like  Us,  are  of  the  SLAVE  CLASS.  When  WE  rise, 
You  rise,  when  WE  fall,  even  by  your  bullets,  YE  fall  also. 

England,  with  its  fertile  valleys  and  dells,  its  mineral  re- 
sources, its  sea  harvests,  is  the  heritage  of  ages  to  us. 

You,  no  doubt,  joined  the  Army  out  of  poverty. 

WE  work  long  hours  for  small  wages  at  hard  work  be- 
cause of  OUR  poverty.  And  both  YOUR  poverty  and  OURS 
arises  from  the  fact  that,  Britain,  with  its  resources,  belongs 
to  only  a  few  people.  These  few,  owning  Britain,  own  OUR 
jobs.  Owning  OUR  jobs,  they  own  OUR  very  LIVES.  Com- 
rades, have  WE  called  in  vain?  Think  things  out  and  re- 
fuse any  longer  to  MURDER  YOUR  KINDRED.  Help  US  to 
win  back  BRITAIN  for  the  BRITISH  and  the  WORLD  for  the 
WORKERS  ! 


Mann's  propaganda  soon  began  to  bear  fruit.  Feb- 
urary,  1911,  witnessed  the  establishment  of  a  "  Pro- 
visional Committee  for  Consolidating  the  Trade 
Unions  and  building  Industry  into  one  organization." 
This  committee  soon  assumed  important  proportions 
and  to-day  includes  representatives  from  the  Paint- 
ers' Society,  Amalgamated  Carpenters  and  Joiners, 
Operative  Stone  Masons,  General  Union  of  Carpen- 
ters, Amalgamated  Order  of  General  Laborers,  Na- 
tional Association  of  Operative  Plumbers,  Electri- 
cians' Union,  Operative  Bricklayers'  Society,  etc., 
etc.  The  Operative  Bricklayers  gave  it  valuable 
support  at  the  outset,  offering  the  committee  a  meet- 
ing hall,  rent  free,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  on  its 
work  and  contributing  liberally  to  the  propaganda 
fund. 

Ted  Morris  of  the  Operative  Bricklayers'  Society 
and  a  member  of  this  Committee  moved  the  Trade 
Union  congress  of  1911  to  pass  this  resolution: 

The  congress  recognizing  the  increased  power  of  the  cap- 
italists in  closing  up  their  ranks  and  their  adoption  of  im- 
proved methods  deplores  the  lack  of  a  similar  consolidation 
among  the  workers.  It  urges  therefore  that  the  parliamen- 
tary committee  take  steps  to  call  conferences  of  the  different 
industries,  with  a  view  to  amalgamating  the  several  trade 
unions  connected  with  each  industry. 

In  September,  1911,  when  the  supreme  council  of 
the  Operative  Bricklayers'  Society  held  their  annual 
meeting,  they  decided  to  create  within  their  society 
a  consolidation  committee  for  the  purpose  of  bring- 
ing about  a  combine  of  all  building  workers. 

The  committee  drafted  the  following  circular; 


Or  ENGLAND:  SYNDICALISM        187» 

OBJECT— ONE  UNION  FOR  THE  BUILDING 
INDUSTRY 

Fellow  Workers: 

Recent  events  affecting  the  position  and  influence  of  or- 
ganized labor  have  led  to  a  general  revival  of  interest  among 
the  industrially  organized  workers  on  the  question  of  the 
best  means  to  be  adopted  to  increase  the  power  of  the  fight- 
ing arm  of  our  class  —  the  trade  unions.  Almost  univer- 
sally the  cry  has  gone  up  for  the  greater  unity  of  action 
among  the  unions  catering  for  the  workers  in  a  given  in- 
dustry. Therefore  we,  the  members  of  the  above  commit- 
tee, wish  to  submit  the  following  suggestions  and  proposals 
to  you,  hoping  they  will  receive  your  careful  consideration 
and  support: 

SECTIONAL  UNIONISM 

Sectional  unionism  is  no  longer  able  to  cope  with  the  con- 
ditions and  problems  of  modern  industry  in  the  building 
trades.  During  late  years  a  complete  change  has  taken 
place  in  the  construction  of  buildings,  as  regards  the  ma- 
terials used,  and  also  the  part  played  by  labor.  Machinery 
specialization,  and  speeding  up  of  manual  labor  have  broken 
down,  in  a  large  measure,  the  craftmanship  which  was  a 
great  factor  in  the  former  power  of  existing  forms  of  in- 
dustrial organization,  and  has  greatly  reduced  the  time 
formerly  required  for  the  erection  of  buildings.  Needless 
to  say,  this  has  increased  the  competition  among  the  work- 
ers, increased  the  periods  of  unemployment,  and  made  great 
inroads  on  the  old  trade  lines. 

All  this  has  meant  endless  demarcation  disputes  among 
the  various  sections  of  skilled  workers,  leading  to  bitter 
struggles  between  trade  unions  catering  for  allied  crafts, 
and  the  wasting  of  our  fighting  strength  in  internal  disputes, 
whose  only  effect  has  been  to  consolidate  the  power  of  the 
employing  class.  Against  the  solidarity  of  the  masters  we 
have  appeared  weak  in  comparison,  each  section  fighting  for 
its  own  hand,  and  making  separate  agreements  with  the  emi 


138  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

ployers,  winch  they  (the  masters)  have  skillfully  used  to  suit 
their  own  ends,  i.  e.,  to  prevent  united  action  by  the  work- 
ers. The  result  of  this  policy  has  had  disastrous  effects, 
due  to  the  misguided  belief  among  the  workers  that  indus- 
trial organization  is  played  out.  We  are  no  longer  re- 
spected, because  we  are  no  longer  feared.  Now,  if  this 
state  of  affairs  is  to  be  improved  we  have  no  hesitation  in 
saying  that  new  methods  of  organization,  coupled  with  a 
new  policy,  will  have  to  be  adopted. 

THE  NEW  METHOD 

The  new  method  of  organization  we  suggest  is  the  amal- 
gamation of  existing  trade  unions  catering  for  the  workers 
engaged  in  the  building  trades.  Such  an  organization 
should  be  constructed  so  as  to  admit  to  membership  all 
workers  employed  in  the  building  industry.  This  recogni- 
tion by  our  organization  of  the  common  interests  of  all  who 
work  for  wages  will  have  the  desirable  effect  of  breaking 
down  the  prejudices  which  have  divided  our  forces  in  the 
past,  and  through  having  one  union  for  the  building  trades, 
make  our  industrial  organization  a  power  again. 

A  fighting  policy  will  draw  again  to  our  ranks  the  workers 
who  are  at  present  unorganized.  Even  with  our  present 
membership  much  could  be  done  to  improve  our  working 
conditions.  A  great  amount  of  the  present  senseless  cut- 
throat competition  in  output  could  be  avoided,  and  a  gen- 
eral movement  could  be  undertaken  to  raise  wages  and 
shorten  the  hours  of  labor.  A  properly  organized  propa- 
ganda, from  convenient  centers,  would  also  be  effective  in 
unifying  the  rates  of  wages  of  the  various  grades  in  a 
given  area. 

INTERNAL 

Internal  organization  should  be  of  such  a  character  as  to 
allow  of  the  fullest  freedom  for  the  various  grades  to  dis- 
cuss and  promote  the  advance  of  their  sectional  interests  in 
line  with  the  general  policy  of  the  whole  organization. 

Sectional  strikes  should  be  reduced  to  the  lowest  possible 
margin  consistent  with  the  maintenance  of  a  fighting  organ- 


IN  ENGLAND:  SYNDICALISM       139 

ization.  When  a  district  or  a  national  stoppage  is  decided 
on,  all  sections  should  be  prepared  with  claims  for  improved 
conditions.  One  of  the  immediately  pressing  needs  is  the 
abolition  of  long  time  agreements,  and  the  unifying  of  the 
time  set  for  their  expiration,  so  that  concerted  action  is  pos- 
sible for  the  industry  all  over  the  country. 

We  have  thus  briefly  enumerated  some  of  the  advantages 
to  be  gained  from  an,  amalgamation  of  existing  trade 
unions;  we  therefore  suggest  the  following  as  the  Name, 
the  Object,  and  the  Immediate  Functions  the  organization 
should  take: 

NAME.— The  Building  Workers'  Industrial  Union. 

OBJECT. — To  unite  the  present  building  trades'  unions 
into  one  union,  embracing  the  whole  of  the  wage  workers 
engaged  therein ;  with  a  view  to  building  a  union  which,  in 
conjunction  with  other  industrial  unions,  will  ultimately 
form  the  framework  of  the  machinery  to  control  and  regu- 
late production  in  the  interests  of  the  entire  community. 

IMMEDIATE  FUNCTIONS —1st.  To  maintain  a  fight- 
ing organization,  working  to  improve  the  material  condi- 
tions of  the  workers  engaged  in  the  building  industry;  to 
take  joint  action  with  other  similar  unions  in  the  furtherance 
of  the  interests  of  the  workers  nationally  and  internation- 
ally, believing  that  the  interests  of  all  wage  workers  are 
identical. 

2nd.  The  systematic  organization  of  propaganda  among 
the  workers,  upon  the  necessity  of  becoming  organized  on 
the  industrial  field,  upon  the  basis  of  class  instead  of  craft. 
Organize  by  industry  as  workers,  instead  of  by  sections  as 
craftsmen. 

FINANCIAL. — 1st.  For  trade  purposes,  a  uniform  scale 
of  contributions  and  benefits. 

2nd.  The  amalgamation  of  the  friendly  side  benefits  into 
a  separate  account. 

HOW  TO  HELP 

For  carrying  on  an  immediate  propaganda  in  favor  of  the 
above  suggestions,  members  everywhere  should  form  groups 


£L"40  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

of  branches  to  discuss  the  subject.  Later,  grouped  meetings 
of  the  various  trade  unions  concerned  should  be  held,  and 
resolutions  should  be  drafted  and  forwarded  to  the  various 
executive  bodies,  asking  that  a  vote  of  the  members  be  taken 
on  the  subject  by  a  given  date.  If  the  result  is  favorable, 
a  grouped  national  delegate  meeting  of  all  the  building 
trades'  unions  should  then  be  demanded,  to  formulate  pro- 
posals for  the  suggested  amalgamation.  .  .  . 

Arrangements  were  made  for  special  meetings  to 
consider  the  leaflet,  with  the  result  that  it  was 
adopted  by  186  branches  to  twelve,  and  by  the  part 
this  leaflet  has  subsequently  played  it  bids  fair  to  be- 
come one  of  the  most  important  documents  in  the 
history  of  the  British  trade  union  movement. 

A  conference  was  held  at  Essex  Hall,  Strand,  Lon- 
don, on  April  18,  1912,  and  the  following  socie- 
ties with  a  membership  of  200,000  were  represen- 
ted: 

Operative  Bricklayers'  Society,  General  Laborers' 
Amalgamated  Union,  Amalgamated  Slaters  and 
Tilers'  Society,  Gasworkers  and  General  Laborers, 
Amalgamated  Union  of  Labor,  French  Polishers,  En- 
gine Drivers,  Crane  Drivers,  Hydraulic  and  Boiler 
Attendants,  National  Association  of  Builders'  La- 
borers, Scottish  Painters'  Society,  General  Union  of 
Carpenters  and  Joiners,  Amalgamated  Society  of 
Carpenters  and  Joiners,  Operative  Stonemasons'  So- 
ciety, Manchester  Unity  of  Operative  Bricklayers, 
Plumbers'  Association,  United  Builders'  Laborers, 
National  Amalgamated  Painters,  Street  Masons,  Pa- 
vers and  Stone  Dressers. 

After   discussion   the  following  resolutions,   sub- 


IN  ENGLAND:  SYNDICALISM       l4i 

mitted  by  the  Operative  Bricklayers'  society  dele- 
gates were  carried : 

1st.  That  this  conference  expresses  its  adherence  to  the 
resolutions  passed  by  the  last  two  Trade  Union  Congresses 
embodying  the  principle  of  amalgamating  the  present  Trades 
Unions  in  the  various  industries,  and  therefore  we,  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  Building  Trades  Unions,  consider  the 
time  is  now  opportune  to  put  the  principle  into  operation  in 
our  industry. 

2nd.  That  a  committee  be  appointed  from  this  conference, 
to  consist  of  one  member  from  each  society  represented,  to 
draw  up  a  scheme  to  give  effect  to  the  previous  resolution^ 
such  scheme  to  be  submitted  to  the  next  conference. 

The  miners  of  South  Wales  have  taken  the  initia- 
tive of  a  reorganization  of  the  mining  workers  along 
industrial  lines.  The  pamphlet  The  Miners'  Next. 
Step,  prepared  by  a  number  of  militant  spirits  has 
created  a  deep  stir  in  England.  It  proposes  to  con- 
solidate into  one  organization  the  whole  of  the  coal, 
ore,  slate,  stone,  clay,  salt,  mining  or  quarrying  in- 
dustry of  Great  Britain,  with  one  central  executive. 

No  agreements  are  to  be  signed  with  the  employ- 
ers. 

Alliances  are  to  be  formed  and  trades  organizations  fos- 
tered with  a  view  to  steps  being  taken  to  amalgamate  all 
workers  into  one  National  and  International  Union  to  work 
for  the  taking  over  of  all  industries  by  the  workmen  them- 
selves. 

The  antiquated  method  of  striking  on  account  of  griev- 
ances is  to  be  discarded  and  the  method  of  "  irritation 
strike  "  is  to  be  adopted,  that  is  to  say,  the  workers  are  to 
remain  at  work  while  reducing  the  output. 

At  the  Trade  Union  congress  held  in  September, 
1912,  in  Newport,  violent  hostility  to  the  New  Union- 


142  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

ism  was  displayed  by  the  old  time  leaders  who  had 
become  aware  of  the  danger  threatening  them.  In- 
dustrialism was  energetically  defended  by  Noah  Ab- 
lett,  a  miner  from  South  Wales,  and  by  John  Tur- 
ner, a  shop  assistant.  "The  Federation  of  Miners," 
Ablett  said,  "  has  waited  twenty  years  for  the  eight- 
hour  day  law;  but  less  than  twelve  months  fight  suf- 
ficed to  obtain  the  minimum  wage.  We  syndicalists 
will  make  our  congress  the  industrial  parliament  of 
the  future." 

No  resolution  was  offered  for  or  against  the  New 
Unionism  but  Ben  Tillett's  resolution  demanding  an 
inquiry  into  the  question  of  conciliation  and  arbitra- 
tion was  defeated  by  1,481,000  votes  against  350,- 
000.  There  is  little  chance  of  the  "  Australian 
idea  "  taking  a  foothold  in  England. 

In  November,  1912,  the  Revolutionary  Syndica- 
lists of  London  and  suburbs  held  a  congress  with  Tom 
Mann  in  the  chair.  The  delegates  numbered  ninety- 
seven,  representing  forty-seven  unions,  some  trade 
councils  and  provisional  committees  formed  in  view 
of  amalgamation,  in  all  fifty-six  labor  bodies.  Among 
the  delegates  were  a  dozen  women. 

The  first  resolution  dealt  with  the  amalgamation 
of  unions  along  industrial  lines  and  invited  the  work- 
ers to  form  committees  to  prepare  plans  for  consolida- 
tion. In  the  building  trades  amalgamation  is  prac- 
tically complete ;  in  the  metal,  transport  and  printing 
trades  special  Committees  have  been  appointed. 
This  resolution  was  carried  almost  unanimously  by 
there  being  only  one  nay. 

The  second  resolution  read  as  follows : 


IN  ENGLAND:  SYNDICALISM       143 

Whereas,  the  Trades  Councils  ought  to  be  the  real  centers 
of  Trade  Union  propaganda,  and  be  used  for  building  up 
the  trade  union  movement  of  wage  workers,  outside,  and 
independent  of  the  control  of  any  political  school  or  reli- 
gious sect,  this  conference  urges  all  organized  bodies  of  work- 
ers to  affiliate  to  the  trades  council  of  their  district  or  to 
take  immediate  steps  to  form  trades  councils  where  none  are 
existent. 

Then  followed  anti-war  resolutions.  After  that 
the  last  resolution  was  read: 

Whereas,  cases  of  international  importance  are  getting 
more  numerous  every  day,  all  countries  should  be  coordi- 
nated, and  an  international  policy  decided  upon,  whereas 
war  is  the  greatest  calamity  that  could  befall  the  interna- 
tional working-class  movement,  it  is  most  urgent  that  com- 
mon action  should  be  decided  upon  by  the  workers  of  all 
countries.  This  conference  calls  upon  the  Industrial  Syn- 
dicalist Educational  League  to  convoke  an  international 
Syndicalist  Congress  to  be  held  in  London  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible. 

It  is  not  the  time  to  merely  vote  resolutions  but  to 
take  measures  against  the  war.  He  insisted  on  the  desirabil- 
ity of  convening  an  International  Syndicalist  Congress,  be- 
cause it  was  clear  that  the  revolutionaries  of  all  countries 
who  are  outside  political  parties,  should  make  themselves 
heard,  and  the  decisions  of  such  an  international  syndicalist 
congress  would  be  far  more  interesting  than  of  any  con- 
gress of  socialist  parties. 

In  the  discussion  Tom  Mann  showed  the  necessity 
of  common  action  against  bellicose  governments. 

In  the  middle  of  December  the  Amalgamation  Com- 
mittees' Federation  decided  to  send  the  following 
manifesto  to  the  various  trade  unions  throughout  the 
country: 


THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

FELLOW-WORKERS 

The  lessons  the  recent  industrial  disputes  have  furnished, 
prove  that  if  we  are  to  be  more  successful  in  our  fight 
against  the  united  forces  of  capitalism,  we  must  in  future 
enter  the  industrial  conflict  in  a  more  up-to-date  and  better 
equipped  form  of  industrial  organization  than  we  have  done 
in  the  past  with  our  craft  Unions. 

The  development  of  modern  industry,  with  the  introduc- 
tion of  labour-saving  machinery,  specialization,  speeding  up, 
and  its  new  methods  of  production,  is  displacing  the  skilled 
artisan,  thereby  forcing  thousands  of  workers  into  the  ranks 
of  the  unemployed. 

These  changes  have  diminished  the  power  of  our  Trade 
Unions,  and  we  find  ourselves  unable  to  either  resist  the  en- 
croachments of  the  employers  upon  our  position,  or  to  im- 
prove our  conditions. 

The  competition  between  the  workers  has  not  only  in- 
creased, but  our  time,  money,  and  energy  are  wasted  by 
demarcation  disputes  which  often  break  out  into  open  rup- 
ture by  the  Unions  fighting  each  other. 

As  wage-workers  (manual  or  intellectual)  who  are  com- 
pelled to  sell  our  labor  power  to  live,  we  have  a  common 
interest;  and  instead  of  quarreling  amongst  ourselves  as  to 
who  shall  do  a  particular  piece  of  work,  we  must  unite  as  a 
class  to  secure  the  wealth  we  produce. 

WHAT  IS  NEEDED 

The  great  need  of  to-day  is  for  a  better  form  of  indus- 
trial organization,  coupled  with  a  fighting  policy. 

We  must  organize  on  the  basis  of  class  instead  of  craft. 

Our  1700  Trade  Unions  must  be  amalgamated  into  indus- 
trial Unions,  so  as  to  have  but  one  union  for  one  industry. 

Our  Industrial  Unions  should  be  constructed  so  as  to  ad- 
mit to  membership  all  workers,  male  or  female,  skilled  or  un- 
skilled, engaged  in  any  one  industry;  and  the  work  of  or- 
ganization should  be  extended  by  uniting  all  industrial 
Unions  into  one  federated  body. 


TN  EtfGLAKD:  SYNDICALISM       145 

Our  object  in  organizing  in  this  way  is  twofold. 

1st.  To  take  common  action,  nationally  and  internation- 
ally, to  shorten  the  hours  of  labor,  raise  wages,  and  improve 
our  conditions. 

2nd.  To  construct  an  organization  that  will  be  capable  of 
administering  and  regulating  production  in  the  interests  of 
the  whole  community,  and  thus  secure  to  the  workers  the 
full  proceeds  of  their  labor. 

HOW  IT  MUST  BE  DONE 

To  achieve  the  above  object  it  has  been  found  necessary 
to  establish  "  Amalgamation  Committees  "  for  each  industry. 
These  committees  are  composed  of  enthusiastic  Trade  Union- 
ists drawn  from  all  Unions  in  the  same  industry  and  desir- 
ous of  securing  the  above  object.  Such  committees  have  al- 
ready been  formed  for  the  printing  industry,  the  metal 
industry,  the  building  industry,  the  transport  industry,  and 
the  mining  industry. 

But  in  order  that  the  work  of  these  committees  might  be 
coordinated,  a  uniform,  plan  of  campaign  entered  upon,  and 
the  growth  of  such  committees  assisted  and  stimulated  in 
every  industry  and  in  every  industrial  center,  it  has  also 
been  found  necessary  to  federate  these  committees;  hence 
this  federation. 

HOW  IT  WILL  BE  DONE 

Thus,  the  Amalgamation  Committees'  Federation  has  been 
formed  to  improve  our  industrial  organizations  and  make 
them  a  force  for  the  uplifting  of  our  class. 

We  are  to  amalgamate  the  Trade  Unions,  not  to  destroy 
them. 

Through  the  medium  of  speakers  and  leaflets  we  shall 
conduct  a  vigorous  campaign  in  favor  of  these  proposals. 

By  establishing  committees  on  the  lines  above  suggested 
we  shall  provide  the  necessary  driving  force  to  bring  about 
the  great  change  we  desire,  and  the  question  of  amalgama- 
tion will  become  a  real  live  one. 


146  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

What  we  want  is  to  give  practical  expression  to  the  pre- 
vailing spirit  of  Industrial  Solidarity. 

Fellow  Unionists,  with  your  moral  and  financial  assistance, 
we  can  carry  this  movement  to  success. 

If  you  agree  with  us,  see  that  this  manifesto  is  read  and 
acted  upon  at  your  next  branch  meeting.  Remember  the 
Unions  belong  to  us,  and  are  what  we  make  them. 

The  workers  must  work  out  their  salvation  themselves. 

Organization  on  the  lines  above  described  will  supply  us 
with  a  weapon  that  will  constantly  challenge  the  consolidated 
forces  of  capitalism  until  the  worker  is  elevated  to  his  right- 
ful position  in  society  —  the  owner  and  controller  of  the 
forces  of  production. 

As  this  chapter  was  near  completion  the  following 
telegram  appeared  in  the  New  York  Times: 

London,  Feb.  14. — The  amalgamation  of  the  three  prin- 
cipal unions  of  railroad  workers  in  Great  Britain  was  ac- 
complished this  afternoon  at  a  conference  of  the  delegates 
of  the  different  organizations,  which  has  been  in  session  in 
London  for  a  week  past.  The  object  of  the  fusion  is  to 
insure  cooperation,  which  has  been  lacking  in  the  strikes 
called  by  the  men  in  the  past. 

The  new  organization  will  be  called  the  National  Union  of 
Railway  Men,  and  it  will  absorb  the  Amalgamated  Society 
of  Railway  Servants,  the  United  Pointsmen  and  Signal 
Men's  Union  and  the  General  Railway  Workers'  Union. 
These  three  societies  have  a  membership  of  about  200,000. 

The  members  of  the  Executive  Committee  will  be  invested 
with  authority  for  ordering  or  ending  a  strike  on  terms 
which  they  deem  satisfactory,  without,  as  heretofore,  acting 
after  the  taking  of  a  ballot  among  the  men. 

The  British  Socialist  party  has  watched  the  growth 
of  the  New  Unionism  with  the  same  concern  which 
the  American  Socialist  party  has  expressed  over  the 
development  of  the  I.  W.  W.  While  the  British  go- 


IN  ENGLAND:  SYNDICALISM        147 

cialists  have  not  as  yet  pronounced  against  the  syn- 
dicalists as  definite  a  sentence  of  excommunication 
as  the  Hillquit  amendment,  the  executive  committee 
of  the  B.  S.  P.  has  felt  called  upon  to  define  its  atti- 
tude by  means  of  a  manifesto. 

The  manifesto  does  not  pronounce  itself  in  prin- 
ciple against  direct  action  by  labor  organizations, 
but  it  declares  that  political  action  is  the  main 
weapon  of  the  party.  "  Those,"  says  the  B.  S.  P., 
"who  denounce  or  neglect  political  action,  by  re- 
placing it  by  direct  action,  sabotage  and  chasing  of 
blacklegs,  are  anarchists,  excluded  from  the  Interna- 
tional Socialist  party.  If  a  small  part  of  the  sacri- 
fices and  expenses  necessary  in  a  strike,  which  often 
is  but  a  policy  of  despair,  was  given  to  socialism  in 
public  affairs,  the  results  would  be  quite  important. 
Socialists,  especially  the  members  of  the  party,  do  not 
advise  the  wage  earners  to  strike,  but  they  will  al- 
ways do  what  they  can  when  the  workers  are  in 
fight  with  their  masters.  Syndicalism  is  clearly 
opposed  to  socialism.  It  is  not  likely  that  syndicalist 
methods  will  find  a  good  ground  in  England." 

The  manifesto  ends  by  appealing  to  all  the  mem- 
bers not  to  let  themselves  be  forced  into  committing 
errors  by  the  appeals  of  direct  actionists  in  the  pres- 
ent critical  period. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   NEW   UNIONISM   IN    ITALY:    SYNDICALISM 

THE  first  attempt  at  class-conscious  action  of  a 
revolutionary  nature  chronicled  in  the  history  of  labor 
in  Italy  was  the  revolt  in  1894  of  some  300,000  Sicil- 
ian peasants  which  was  speedily  ended  by  the  soldiers' 
bullets.  This  was  followed  by  several  troubled  years ; 
in  1898  the  government  dissolved  every  labor  organi- 
zation in  the  land  but  the  only  effect  of  that  high- 
handed measure  was  to  fan  the  flame  of  discontent. 

The  revolutionary  spirit  grew  steadily  fiercer  until 
in  July,  1900,  an  obscure  laborer  named  Breschi 
killed  King  Humbert  I.  Renewed  repression  brought 
about  terrible  uprisings.  When  the  Genoa  Labor 
Exchange  was  closed  by  the  authorities  a  general 
strike  tied  up  completely  the  most  important  commer- 
cial center  of  Italy. 

The  government  had  to  relent.  Federations  of 
workers  were  organized  in  every  city,  the  Federation 
of  the  Printing  Trades,  of  Glass  Workers,  of 
Railroaders,  of  Textile  Workers,  of  Maritime  Work- 
ers, etc.  In  1901  the  agricultural  workers  held  their 
first  congress  and  organized  themselves  into  a  feder- 
ation. In  1902  a  Labor  Convention  held  in  Milan 
decided  to  create  a  Central  Secretariat  of  Resistance 
with  the  purpose  of  coordinating  and  systematizing 
the  efforts  of  all  the  federations. 

148 


IK  ITALY:  SYNDICALISM          149> 

At  that  time  the  Socialist  party  exerted  a  power- 
ful influence  upon  the  workers.  After  the  general 
strike  of  1904,  however,  that  influence  began  to  wane 
very  rapidly.  The  workers  suspected  the  "  intellec- 
tuals," parliamentarians,  lawyers,  physicians,  teach- 
ers, whose  only  aim  was  financial  success  through 
what  Lanzillo  calls  "  a  socialist  career."  In  1906, 
the  workers'  representatives  met  again  in  Milan  and 
decided  to  replace  the  useless  and  conservative  Secre- 
tariat of  Resistance  by  a  broader  and  more  aggres- 
sive organism,  the  Confederazione  Generale  del  La- 
voro  or  0.  G.  L.  which  is  practically  a  duplicate  of  the 
French  C.  G.  T. 

The  eloquence  of  the  intellectuals,  however,  soon 
defeated  the  congress'  purpose  and  the  0.  G.  L.  was 
from  the  very  first  pledged  to  a  reformist  policy. 
Enrico  Ferri,  editor  of  the  Avanti  and  once  revolu- 
tionary, became  a  stubborn  opponent  of  syndicalism. 
Leone,  Sabattini,  de  Ambris  left  the  Avanti  and 
kept  up  the  syndicalist  propaganda  in  the  columns  of 
II  Sindicato  Operaio.  At  an  early  stage  of  the 
struggle  all  the  syndicalists  resigned  from  the  So- 
cialist party. 

While  the  rank  and  file  of  the  C.  G.  L.  which 
claims  some  -400,000  members  is  rather  revolution- 
ary, the  leaders,  who  are  mostly  reformist  politicians, 
have  kept  the  Confederation  in  absolute  bondage  and 
have  transformed  it  into  a  mere  electoral  machine. 
Its  main  purpose  seems  to  be  not  only  to  prevent 
strikes  but  to  help  the  government  in  penalizing  the 
strikers. 

In  1907  the  railroaders  struck  against  the  decision 


150  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

of  the  C.  G.  L.  Enrico  Ferri  published  an  editorial 
in  the  Avanti  declaring  that  the  strikers  were  not  en- 
titled to  any  sympathy.  The  C.  G.  L.  sent  out  a 
bulletin  formally  discountenancing  the  railroaders. 
Two  hours  after  the  bulletin  had  been  posted  meas- 
ures of  repression  were  taken  against  500  of  them. 

The  same  year  the  C.  G.  L.,  the  socialist  deputies 
and  the  various  radical  papers,  Avanti,  II  Tempo 
and  II  Secolo  took  sides  with  the  employers  in  the 
strike  of  the  Parma  farm  workers,  hundreds  of  whom 
were  arrested  or  driven  out  of  the  country. 

Another  factor  has  retarded  the  development  of  the 
syndicalist  movement  in  Italy;  that  is  the  organiza- 
tion of  working  class  cooperatives  of  production  or 
consumption.  The  government  soon  recognized  that 
those  associations  could  become  useful  agencies  for 
the  dissemination  of  conservative  ideas  and  has 
granted  them  many  favors  in  the  form  of  profitable 
contracts. 

Some  of  those  Societa  Cooperative  del  Lavoro  have 
undertaken  very  important  pieces  of  work,  such  as 
building  the  slaughter  house  of  Parma  and  the  Reg- 
gio-Ciano  railroad  line  which  was  leased  to  them  for 
seventy  years.  But  they  find  themselves  in  a  pecul- 
iar position:  they  cannot  offer  bids  for  public  works 
in  competition  with  private  contractors.  Work  of  a 
public  nature  is  only  turned  over  to  them  through 
the  good  offices  of  some  "  friend  of  labor  "  in  parlia- 
ment. Were  they  to  manifest  too  openly  a  certain 
political  independence  they  would  lose  their  best  con- 
tracts. The  history  of  one  of  those  organizations, 
the  Glassblowers  Cooperative  Association,  for  which 


IN  ITALY:  SYNDICALISM  151 

we  are  indebted  to  Odon  For,  will  illustrate  the  dif- 
ficulties which  beset  the  path  of  "  cooperators." 

Until  1900  the  Italian  Glassblowers  were  organized  in  "a 
rather  crude  way,  their  Mutual  Aid  Society  admitting  to  its 
membership  foremen  and  first-class  workers  only.  In  1900, 
however,  the  need  was  felt  of  a  more  democratic  organiza- 
tion and  the  Federation  of  Italian  Bottle  Blowers  took  the 
place  of  the  Mutual  Aid  Society. 

It  was  at  first  to  be  a  sort  of  employment  agency  for 
the  workers  but  it  soon  conceived  more  ambitious  plans. 
The  Federation  bought  an  old  factory  in  Leghorn,  rebuilt  it 
and,  in  October,  1903,  fire  was  lit  in  the  first  furnace.  A 
second  furnace  soon  became  necessary;  the  bottle  blowers, 
after  their  regular  day's  work  transformed  themselves  into 
masons  and  mechanics,  and  completed  the  construction  of 
the  furnace  in  forty-seven  days. 

The  first  fiscal  year  of  cooperative  manufacturing  and 
trading  closed  with  a  net  profit  of  15,000  lire. 

The  Socialist  municipality  of  Imola  offered  them  a  pre- 
mium to  the  Federation  for  establishing  a  new  cooperative 
factory  in  that  town.  Another  factory  was  also  established 
in  Sesto-Calendo  near  Milan,  the  bottleblowers  subscribing 
30,000  lire  for  that  purpose.  A  fourth  one  was  opened  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Naples. 

The  various  furnaces  of  the  Cooperative  turn  out  some 
100,000  bottles  and  ten  carloads  of  demijohns  a  day.  Its 
working  capital  is  about  one  million  lire  and  its  plants  rep- 
resent an  investment  of  over  two  million  lire. 

In  contrast  with  many  of  the  Italian  Cooperatives  whose 
members  become  greatly  opposed  to  revolutionary  disturb- 
ances, the  Federation  of  Italian  Bottle  Blowers  has  been 
evolving  very  rapidly  towards  pure  industrialism.  It  de- 
cided to  admit  to  full  membership  not  only  the  glassblow- 
ers,  but  all  the  workers  engaged  directly  or  indirectly  in 
bottle  making  as  well,  such  as  the  stokers,  the  gasometer 
tenders,  carpenters,  etc. 

This  increased  the  membership  of  the  Federation  to  about 


152  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

4000.  Furthermore  some  1500  members  of  yellow  unions  or 
reformist  craft  unions  in  the  employ  of  the  Glass  Trust 
realizing  that  they  could  not  afford  to  keep  out  of  this  pow- 
erful organization  entered  into  negotiations  with  the  Fed- 
eration. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  marvelous  discipline  which  is 
maintained  in  the  five  factories  run  by  the  Cooperative ;  there 
is  not  a  single  overseer  in  any  of  them  and  the  business  and 
technical  directors  are  drawn  from  the  rank  and  file. 

These  workers  have  no  intention  whatever  of  becoming 
capitalists.  No  dividend  shall  ever  be  declared.  A  part  of 
the  profits  of  the  enterprise  is  applied  to  the  needs  of  the 
Socialist  Party  and  of  the  socialist  press.  Another  part  of 
the  profits  goes  to  the  old  age,  invalid  and  widow  fund  and 
to  the  orphan  fund.  (Odon  Por  in  Syndicalism  in  Action.) 

Since  the  pamphlet  from  which  we  quote  the  above 
information  was  written  the  war  with  Tripoli  caused 
outbursts  of  jingoism  among  the  conservatives,  of 
anti-militarism  among  the  radicals.  The  glassblow- 
ers  soon  felt  the  consequences  of  their  non-conformist 
attitude.  We  quote  from  a  letter  written  by  Odon 
Por  in  January,  1913,  to  the  Fabian  Society: 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  Italian  war  in  the  fall  of  1911,  a 
great  financial  crisis  set  in  and  still  endures  for  all  Italian 
industries  and  banks.  Of  course  the  big  banks  refused  to 
give  loans  and  especially  closed  their  coffers  to  all  the 
proletarian  concerns  which  took  a  decided  stand  against  the 
war.  The  Glass  Blowers  Cooperative  Society  was  the  first 
to  suffer,  especially  because  its  director  was  the  general  man- 
ager of  the  Avanti,  the  only  paper  fighting  against  the  war 
and  denouncing  high  finance  as  the  cause  of  the  war.  Not 
having  credit,  the  Society  could  not  keep  on  working  reg- 
ularly, as  no  other  big  industrial  concern  is  able  to  keep  on 
without  the  aid  of  banks.  It  did  not  go  bankrupt,  but  went 
through  a  period  of  reorganization.  The  Court  allowed  it 
to.  settle  its  debts  in  instalments  and  within  a  certain  period  j 


IN  ITALY:  SYNDICALISM          153 

this  period  is  not  up  yet  and,  as  a  consequence  of  this  court 
decision  the  Cooperative  still  manages  its  factories  and  it 
has  already  sold  its  whole  product  for  1913. 

.  .  .  Another  interesting  fact  (which  from  our  point  of 
view,  is  the  only  important  one),  when  the  creditors  tried  to 
place  the  cooperatives  in  the  hands  of  receivers  and  put 
capitalist  business  men  at  the  head  of  the  management  every- 
thing began  to  go  to  pieces,  production  and  management 
were  utterly  disorganized,  until  the  chief  creditor,  a  banker, 
called  back  the  old  managers  and  asked  them  to  reorganize 
everything  on  efficient  lines. 

Syndicalist  writers  are  generally  opposed  to  the 
creation  of  cooperative  societies.  The  C.  Q.  L.,  on 
the  contrary,  looks  upon  them  very  favorably  and  is 
constantly  warning  the  workers  against  following  the 
tactics  of  the  French  C.  G.  T.  which  "  being  pecul- 
iarly French  are  not  suited  to  Italian  conditions." 

The  C.  G.  L.  at  its  1908  congress  assumed  a  con- 
trolling voice  in  all  labor  disputes.  No  affiliated 
federation  is  authorized  to  declare  a  strike  or  to 
adopt  any  strike  tactics  without  referring  the  ques- 
tion to  the  central  body.  The  Modena  congress  de- 
cided to  defer  for  ten  years  all  discussion  of  the  gen- 
eral strike. 

In  April,  1909,  the  Congress  of  Syndicalist  Ee- 
sistance  met  in  Bologna.  Many  revolutionary  labor 
exchanges  and  the  Railroaders'  Syndicate  were  rep- 
resented by  delegates.  They  decided  to  join  the 
C.  G.  L.  for  the  express  purpose  of  leavening  it 
through  their  revolutionary  spirit,  "boring  from 
within."  For  several  years  the  results  of  their  prop- 
aganda were  discouraging.  The  various  compro- 
mises rendered  necessary  by  the  fusion  of  those  two 


154'  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

antagonistic  bodies  produced  curious  distortions  of 
the  syndicalist  idea.  For  instance  Deputy  Maran- 
goni  was  elected  on  an  anti-parliamentary  platform. 
In  November,  1912,  finally  a  divorce  freed  the  two 
incompatible  mates. 

At  Modena  on  November  23,  24  and  25,  represen- 
tatives of  100,000  Italian  workers  held  a  congress 
on  behalf  of  revolutionary  syndicalism.  The  indus- 
trial bodies  represented  were  300  agricultural  syn- 
dicates, with  30,000  members;  100  transport  syndi- 
cates including  public  service  syndicates  with  30,000 
members;  150  syndicates  of  the  building  and  fur- 
nishing trades,  with  20,000  members;  twenty-five 
metal  workers  syndicates,  with  YOOO  members; 
thirty  clothing  workers'  syndicates  with  2000  mem- 
bers ;  twenty  syndicates  of  the  catering  trade,  with 
3000  members;  ten  mining  syndicates,  with  5000 
members,  and  ten  miscellaneous  syndicates  with  3000 
members. 

After  a  lively  discussion,  the  activity  of  the  com- 
mittee on  direct  action  was  approved.  A  resolution 
demanding  the  release  of  all  political  and  military 
prisoners,  some  2000  in  number,  was  voted  unani- 
mously. 

The  congress,  by  a  large  majority,  passed  the  fol- 
lowing resolutions : 

"We  recognize  as  temporary  weapons  for  the  syndicates 
the  partial  strike,  boycott  and  sabotage  by  the  help  of  which 
the  Bourgeoisie  from  day  to  day  is  obliged  to  give  up  a 
larger  part  of  its  profits.  A  general  strike  of  all  the  work- 
ers in  all  branches  of  production  is  the  only  way  to  bring 
about  the  definite  expropriation  of  the  bourgeois  classes. 


IN  ITALY:  SYNDICALISM  155 

On  November  24,  1912,  the  revolutionary  syndi- 
calists definitely  separated  from  the  Confederazione 
del  Lavoro,  forming  a  new  national  organization, 
the  Italian  Syndical  Union.  The  discussion  on  this 
action  lasted  nearly  ten  hours,  the  motion  being  car- 
ried by  a  vote  of  42,114  against  28,152,  with  3000 
abstaining  from  voting.  Twenty-five  thousand  of  the 
votes  in  favor  of  retaining  the  old  affiliation  were 
cast  by  railway  men,  thus  proving  that  with  the 
exception  of  this  syndicate  nearly  all  the  revolution- 
ary syndicalists  see  the  necessity  of  separating  them- 
selves from  the  conservatives  and  reactionaries. 

Resolutions  were  then  passed  endorsing  anti-mili- 
tarism and  pointing  out  the  necessity  of  establishing 
a  fund  similar  to  the  French  "  Soldier's  Penny." 
Parma  was  chosen  as  the  headquarters  of  the  syndi- 
cate. 

L'Internazwndle,  the  organ  of  the  new  movement, 
published  fortnightly  at  Parma,  says  that  "  now  the 
Italian  proletariat  has  not  only  chosen  the  right  road, 
but  has  also  shown  its  invincible  determination  to  go 
along  it  to  the  end."  L'lnternazionale  has  a  circula- 
tion of  20,000. 

Alarmed  by  this  syndicalist  revolt  the  Central 
Trades  Councils  affiliated  with  the  C.  G.  L.  have 
started  a  paper  whose  special  purpose  is  to  combat 
the  tactics  of  revolutionary  syndicalism.  The  lead- 
ers of  the  central  union  think  that  this  new  paper 
}Battaglia  Sindacale  will  be  better  able  to  fight  the 
Internazionale  than  the  existing  monthly  papers,  es- 
pecially as  the  official  organ  of  the  Italian  Confedera- 
tion of  Labor,  which  is  issued  monthly  under  the 


159  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

direction  of  a  reformist  majority,  cannot  engage  in  la- 
bor controversies. 

Quotations  from  the  works  of  Arturo  Labriola  and 
Enrico  Leone,  the  two  leaders  of  the  Syndicalist 
movement  (neither  of  whom  is  from  the  ranks  of 
labor)  will  show  that  their  views  are  in  no  essential 
way  different  from  those  expressed  by  the  more  radi- 
cal members  of  the  French  C.  GL  T. 

Arturo  Labriola  writes  in  Riforme  e  TUvoluzione 
Sociale: 

The  socialization  of  production  has  already  come  about, 
thanks  to  the  mechanism  of  the  capitalist  system.  We  do 
not  need  to  substitute  a  new  method  of  production  (state  or 
municipal)  for  the  capitalistic  method,  but  a  new  method  of 
distribution.  The  method  of  production  remains  what  it 
was  in  a  capitalist  society.  We  are  concerned  only  with 
the  redistribution  of  claims  to  ownership. 

Capitalism  has  not  in  reality  produced  one  form  of  in- 
dustrial organization,  but  unites  the  different  productive  ele- 
ments (land,  capital  and  labor)  in  very  different  ways. 
Nothing  could  be  more  repugnant  than  too  much  uniformity. 

We  can  imagine  that  a  syndicate  for  a  certain  trade  could 
comprise  all  the  workers  in  a  single  branch  of  industry, 
could  contract  on  a  uniform  basis  with  all  the  capitalists  on 
behalf  of  all  the  workers,  and  could  accumulate  in  a  com- 
mon fund  all  the  profits  to  be  distributed  equitably  to  all 
its  members,  distributed,  for  example,  according  to  the  num- 
ber of  a  man's  children,  the  condition  of  his  health,  or  his 
strength,  and  so  on;  and  this  syndicate  —  a  State  within 
a  State  —  by  carrying  out  the  insurance  of  its  members  in 
various  ways,  frees  them  from  the  control  of  the  State  — 
that  is,  of  a  power  outside  their  own  will.  This  process 
could  go  farther.  We  can  imagine  that,  at  a  certain  point 
of  its  development,  the  workers'  union  might  hire  the  capital 
of  the  capitalists,  for  a  fixed  return,  and  then  use  it  coopera- 


IN  ITALY:  STODICALISM  157 

lively,  either  working  in  mass  or  through  several  coopera- 
tive bodies,  keeping  separate  and  distinct  accounts.  And 
finally  the  federation  of  various  syndicates  could  become 
strong  enough  to  refuse  all  return  for  the  use  of  capital,  and 
so  possess  itself  of  it  without  compensation.  The  revolution 
would  then  he  complete.  The  capitalist  class  would  have  to 
Work  in  order  to  live.  Syndicates  opposed  to  monopoly, 
and  therefore  open  to  all,  would  enthusiastically  receive  the 
capitalists  of  yesterday,  and  make  use  of  their  indisputable 
directive  and  administrative  capacity. 

Labriola  does  not  describe  the  process  by  which; 
the  workers  will  take  possession  of  the  means  of  pro- 
duction; he  only  mentions  that  the  capitalists  will 
be  expropriated  by  "  an  association  of  the  workers 
who  already  possess  the  technical  capacity  necessary 
for  managing  production."  This  will  not  be  accom- 
plished without  violence.  Labriola  points  out  that 

.  .  .  "violence  will  not  suffice  to  bring  about  any  change 
unless  those  who  employ  it  are  prepared  to  make  full  use 
of  the  means  of  which  they  take  possession;  misery  and 
revolt  will  not  in  themselves  lead  to  a  permanent  change 
unless  those  who  are  suffering  have  a  clear  idea  of  the  cause 
of  their  misery  and  are  collectively  ready  to  alter  their  con- 
dition. Violence  must  not  be  used  capriciously;  bourgeois 
society  grew  out  of  feudalism  only  with  the  help  of  vio- 
lence." 

At  the  end  of  his  chapter  on  violence,  he  states 
that  in  the  Russo-Japanese  War  the  use  of  hand 
bombs  was  found  to  be  an  effective  determinant  in 
battle,  while  in  the  recent  Russian  revolution  the 
general  strike  combined  with  armed  demonstrations 
and  "  the  personal  use  of  explosives  "  was  used  to 
good  effect;  he  argues  from  these  recent  experiences 


158  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

that  the  chances  of  a  crowd  against  modern  battalions 
are  now  better  than  has  been  long  supposed. 

In  II  Sindacalismo ,  a  series  of  addresses  published 
in  book  form,  Enrico  Leone  attempts  to  show  that 
syndicalism  is  inevitable  owing  to  the  slow  but  in- 
cessant development  of  self-interest  within  the 
masses. 

The  syndicate  is  not  a  kind  of  democratic  association,  but 
an  institution  born  of  the  economic  laws  of  capitalism  and 
destined  to  generate  in  itself  the  skeleton  of  the  coming  so- 
ciety. In  syndicalism  more  than  in  any  other  theory  you 
can  point  to  the  socialism  that  is  to  be. 

Considering  this  common  class  movement  and  also  con- 
sidering the  hedonist  impulse  assumed  by  modern  economics, 
we  are  able  to  declare  that  —  even  if  the  process  of  con- 
centration of  capital  does  not  go  on  —  thanks  to  the  syndi- 
calist vision,  socialism  has  a  material  basis  of  necessity. 

This  necessity  is  shown  by  the  concentration  and  will- 
power which  men  are  necessarily  impelled  to  use  in  display- 
ing their  competitive  energy,  under  the  thrust  of  the  law  of 
egoism.  Thus  the  syndicate  reveals  itself  as  the  necessary 
manifestation  of  the  profound  law  of  competition,  and 
socialism  appears  as  the  result  of  the  inevitable  laws  of  eco- 
nomic value.  Under  this  aspect,  syndicalism,  as  Bernstein 
well  put  it,  is  an  organized  liberalism. 

But  since  socialism  is,  and  remains,  a  matter  of  the  me- 
chanics of  interests,  can  it  possibly  retain  the  creative  power 
of  the  forces  of  enthusiasm?  In  the  upper  spheres  of  so- 
cial and  political  antagonisms  —  although  at  the  bottom  of 
them  this  prosaic  economic  world  lies  like  the  ferment  of 
manure  under  the  green  shoots  of  the  flowers  —  the  drama 
of  the  history  of  life  is  colored  and  beautified  by  the  con- 
flicts of  great  passions,  by  passionate  ideals,  by  heroic  vio- 
lence, by  the  obscure  tragedy  of  the  worker,  by  the  vast 
and  culminating  changes  of  history. 

But  no  one  should  reject  this  bald  economic  conception  of 


IN  ITALY:  SYNDICALISM  150 

socialism  as  a  blasphemy  against  all  the  light  of  ideal  truth. 
These  ideal  aspirations  are  chimerical  dreams,  graceful  but- 
terflies fluttering  in  this  dark  forest  which  is  the  modern 
world. 

Socialism,  which  breaks  out  of  the  bowels  of  the  life  of 
society,  out  of  the  class  of  workers,  is  not,  therefore,  an 
ideal,  but  a  class  war.  The  ideal  of  absolute  human  hap- 
piness can  in  no  way  be  put  into  a  formula. 

To-day,  the  working  class  —  with  the  automatic  action  of 
economic  law — 'Constructs  the  first  nucleus  of  the  future 
society  of  equals  in  associations  of  workers,  which  are  to  or- 
ganize and  discipline  production,  make  it  free  from  all  con- 
trol of  the  strong  over  the  weak,  and  make  themselves  self- 
contained  and  free  from  any  superior  human  power. 

The  workers'  movement  will  be  able  from  time  to  time  to 
express  itself  in  brilliant  theoretical  form,  and  possibly  in 
mistaken  theories;  but  it  has  in  itself  an  incomprehensible 
force,  that  —  like  a  mysterious  torch  —  illumines  its  way. 

This  is  the  superiority  of  syndicalism.  It  does  not  build 
a  new  social  system  according  to  its  fancy,  but  emerges  from 
the  working-class  movement  as  an  autonomous  and  distinct 
realm,  and  sees  in  itself  the  fertile  soil  from  which,  as  a 
fruit  springs  from  its  own  tree  and  a  tree  from  its  own  soil, 
it  will  produce  a  new  world. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   NEW    UNIONISM   IN    GERMANY!    LOCALISM: 

REVOLUTIONARY  organization  was  an  impossibility 
in  Germany  as  long  as  the  Sozialistengesetz  was  in 
force  and  therefore  we  shall  not  go  further  back  than 
the  year  1890  in  the  history  of  German  syndicalism. 
At  the  trade  union  conference  which  met  in  Berlin 
that  year  there  was  a  small  minority  which  believed 
not  only  in  the  autonomy  of  local  unions  but  also  in  a 
sort  of  amalgamation  of  all  the  branches  of  each  sep- 
arate industry. 

In  1897  that  minority,  slightly  increased,  held  its 
own  independent  congress.  In  1903  the  new  unions 
becoming  less  and  less  orthodox  in  their  attitude  to 
both  trade  unionism  and  socialism  formed  a  Federa- 
tion and  assumed  the  name  of  Freie  Vereinigung 
Deutscher  Gewerkschaften. 

In  1904  and  1905  Dr.  Friedeberg  addressed  their 
local  groups  advocating  an  anti-parliamentary  policy, 
direct  action,  strikes  and  boycott.  On  August  23, 
1905,  at  the  close  of  an  address  he  delivered  before 
several  thousand  adherents,  a  resolution  defining  the 
future  policy  of  the  Freie  Vereinigung'  was  voted  by 
acclamation.  It  spoke  among  other  things  of  the 
"  apparent  successes  of  parliamentarism "  and  de- 
clared that  only  class  war  could  overthrow  class  rule, 
the  general  strike  being  the  best  weapon  of  the  work- 
ing classes. 

160 


IN  GERMANY:  LOCALISM         163] 

Members  of  the  Freie  Vereinigung  generally  desig- 
nate themselves  as  Lokalisten  or  Anarcho  Sozialisten. 
Their  programme  includes  the  retention  by  every  local 
branch  of  the  right  to  strike;  solidarity  strikes,  and 
a  continual  propaganda  for  the  general  strike;  high 
dues  and  entrance  fees  are  absolutely  tabooed ;  no  lo- 
calist  group  shall  collect  any  money  except  for  strike 

pay- 1 

It  is  not  the  conquest  of  political  power  which,  ac- 
cording to  the  localist  view,  is  really  important  but 
the  destruction  of  political  power  to  be  replaced  by 
direct  organization  of  the  producing  groups.  The 
war  waged  by  the  oppressed  against  their  oppressor 
must  be  merciless  and  includes  a  propaganda  against 
militarism,  patriotism  and  clericalism. 

The  localists  publish  three  papers,  Die  Einigkeit, 
a  propaganda  publication,  Der  Pionier,  which  is  the 
official  organ  of  the  Freie  Vereinigung,  and  Der 
Kampf  issued  quite  recently  in  Hamburg.  The  fol- 
lowing excerpts  from  an  article  published  in  Der 
Pionier  for  January  3,  1912,  illustrate  the  policy  of 
the  German  localists : 

The  worker  is  told  to  choose  representatives.  He  chooses 
by  bits  of  paper,  political,  and  if  all  goes  well,  trade  union 
representatives  —  talkers.  Now,  is  it  possible  for  these 
"  representatives "  of  those  who  have  nothing,  to  convince 
the  "  representatives  "  of  the  propertied  that  they  must  give 
up  their  property  in  order  to  bring  about  the  equal  rights  of 
mankind'?  No!!  Well,  then,  if  that  is  not  possible,  the 
whole  parliamentary  system  is  not  only  useless,  but  harm- 
ful. .  .  . 

Parliaments  are  as  dangerous  for  mature  men  as  barracks 
are  for  young  men.  In  the  one,  as  in  the  other,  men  are  < 


162  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

taken  out  of  their  own  class.  In  the  one,  as  in  the  other, 
most  men  are  infected  by  militarism  and  are  made  by  it  di- 
rect enemies  of  anti-militarist  socialism. 

Only  think  of  Bebel  in  Berlin,  Greulich  in  Switzerland, 
Jaures  in  Paris.  They  all  declare  loudly  and  solemnly  that 
they  have  nothing  in  common  with  those  who  undermine  the 
best  supports  of  throne  and  capitalism,  that  is  the  military. 

These  men,  at  first  so  firm,  would  never  have  degenerated 
so  completely  as  socialists  if  they  had  remained  among  the 
workers  and  had  used  their  undoubted  abilities  in  order  to 
enlighten  the  masses.  And  the  expenses  of  parliamentary 
action  are  not  as  small  as  many  assume.  The  elections  of 
1907  ate  up  twenty  million  marks  of  which  the  social-demo- 
cratic workers'  pence  amounted  to  three  millions. 

How  much  educational  work  could  have  been  done  with 
all  that  money  by  distributing  good  propaganda  literature! 

But  the  most  compelling  reason  why  the  workers  should 
not  take  part  in  elections  is  the  crippling  effect  which  par- 
liaments have  on  the  decisions  of  the  worker. 

As  the  more  or  less  faithful  Christian,  listening  to  his 
priest,  hopes  for  heaven's  manna,  so  the  dispossessed  turn 
their  expectant  gaze  towards  the  houses  of  parliament  or 
read  the  speeches  of  their  deputies  with  delight ;  and  so  their 
power  of  personal  action  is  crippled,  their  own  development 
is  hampered,  and  their  belief  in  themselves  and  in  their  fel- 
low-sufferers is  shaken.  .  .  . 

Down  with  the  electoral  lie!  Long  live  revolutionary  so- 
cialism !  Hurrah  for  the  General  Strike. 

The  Freie  Vereinigung  Deutscher  Gewerkschaften 
or  Syndicalist  Federation  of  Germany  Las  always  re- 
fused to  furnish  statements  as  to  its  membership  to 
the  Imperial  Statistical  office.  Robert  Michels  in 
Syndicalisme  et  Socialisme  places  their  membership 
between  15,000  and  20,000. 

The  tenth  congress  of  the  Freie  Vereinigung  was 
held  at  Madgeburg-Wilhelmstadt  from  Ma£  16  to  18, 


IN  GERMANY:  LOCALISM  163 

1912.  Fifty-seven  delegates  representing  126  or- 
ganizations (twenty-four  unions  had  not  sent  dele- 
gates), the  administrative  committee,  the  commission 
and  editor  of  Der  Pionier  attended  the  congress. 
The  discussion  reflected  the  purely  proletarian  char- 
acter of  the  congress  in  opposition  to  the  ordinary 
congresses  of  the  large  centralist  trade  unions  where 
the  paid  officials  and  candidates  to  offices  dominate 
the  discussions. 

A  discussion  took  place  on  the  "  question  of  or- 
ganization." The  majority  adopted  a  resolution  re- 
jecting the  centralist  form  of  organization  which  leads 
to  the  domination  of  a  few  and  the  servile  obedience 
of  the  others.  The  F.  V.  declared  itself  in  favor  of 
the  federative  form,  leaving  the  local  trade  unions 
free  to  decide  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  strikes. 

The  German  Socialist  party  condemned  long  ago 
all  syndicalist  tendencies  cropping  up  within  its 
ranks  and  as  early  as  1907  expelled  Dr.  Friedeberg 
for  "  preaching  lawlessness,  anti-patriotism,  atheism 
and  anti-militarism." 

The  German  socialist  congress  which  met  in  Chem- 
nitz last  fall  indicated  a  rather  conservative  tendency. 
The  suggestion  to  restrict  the  power  of  the  parlia- 
mentary groups  in  the  party  was  defeated.  In  the 
future  as  in  the  past  all  socialist  members  of  the 
Reichstag  will  be  seated  in  the  congress  with  full 
floor  privileges  and  the  vote.  Besides  the  congress 
supported  the  executive  committee  which  at  the  last 
election  had  directed  the  socialists  of  some  twenty 
election  districts  to  stop  their  compaign  against  the 
liberals.  At  the  same  time  an  ambiguous  declaration 


164)  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

that  the  extraordinary  conditions  obtaining  then  were 
not  likely  to  recur  again  may  be  construed  as  mild 
reproof. 

A  syndicalist  tendency  to  concentration  and  amal- 
gamation is  noticeable,  however,  in  the  German  trade 
unions.  Not  that  it  has  given  rise  to  any  discussions 
but  statistics  reveal  clearly  what  is  taking  place: 
while  the  membership  of  the  German  unions  has  con- 
stantly increased,  being  in  round  numbers  2,500,000 
for  the  free  or  socialist  unions,  125,000  in  the  Hirsch- 
Duncker  unions,  700,000  in  the  independent,  35,000 
in  the  patriotic,  80,000  in  the  yellow  and  350,000  in 
the  Christian  unions,  the  number  of  unions  has  de- 
creased from  sixty-six  in  1906  to  fifty-three  in  1912. 


CHAPTER  X 

1KB    NEW    UNIONISM    IN    AUSTRALIA,    NEW    ZEALAND, 
AND   SOUTH    AFRICA 

TOM  MANN  on  his  return  from  Australia,  relating 
his  observations  in  that  country,  said  that  his  own. 
personal  experiences  taught  him  no  longer  to  have 
confidence  in  parliamentary  action.  The  workings 
of  the  Industrial  Conciliation  and  Arbitration  Acts 
which  he  saw  in  Australia,  where  labor  men  and  so- 
cialists have  power,  taught  him  how  little  parliaments 
can  do.  Only  where  workers  themselves  undertake 
to  decide  what  their  conditions  shall  be  are  conditions 
tolerable.  He  went  on  to  speak  of  the  wages  of  min- 
ers at  Ballarat,  a  gold-mining  town  seventy  miles 
from  Melbourne,  where  the  standard  rate  is  7s.  6d.  a 
day  for  eight  hours  for  a  qualified  miner,  but  where 
many  cannot  get  employment  at  day  rates.  At  the 
less  profitable  mines  men  contract  to  develop  the  mine 
without  wages,  but  take  a  percentage  of  the  output. 
Usually  a  group  of  four  work  together.  Often  they; 
strike  no  metal  for  three  months ;  they  have  to  pur- 
chase their  own  picks  and  utensils,  and  in  the  end  they] 
get  an  average  of  12s.  or  18s.  a  week. 

They  belong  to  unions,  but  the  unions  have  easy-going  of- 
ficials who  do  not  understand  the  necessity  for  fighting  and 
for  complete  unity.  These  men  are  living  on  their  own  chil- 
dren to  a  large  extent  —  they  are  compelled  to  do  so.  You 
may  say,  "  But  are  tb«  members  of  parliament  there  able 

165 


166!  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

men  ?  "  The  parliamentarians  are  singularly  smart.  They 
find  that  they  have  not  the  power  to  make  a  change. 

He  then  spoke  of  agricultural  conditions,  and  of  the 
impossibility  of  finding  land  in  some  states  on  reason- 
able conditions,  at  the  very  time  when  the  British 
government  was  announcing  that  there  was  much 
available  land.  Then  he  spoke  of  the  Queensland 
eugar  industry, 

where  until  this  (1910)  year  twelve  hours'  work  was  done 
in  one  shift,  with  no  stoppage  for  meals,  and  the  wages 
consisted  of  22s.  6d.  a  week  and  rough  housing.  Work  was 
done  like  this  for  five  months  in  the  year,  and  then  ninety- 
five  per  cent,  of  the  men  were  discharged,  and  they  tramped 
away  and  got  one  week  in  four  of  work  afterwards.  This 
district  had  only  returned  one  labor  man  since  1893,  and  his 
activities  have  made  no  difference.  This  last  year  (1910) 
a  change  has  taken  place.  The  hours  have  been  reduced  to 
eight,  and  a  minimum  wage  of  25s.  has  been  gained. 

Parliament  is  alien  to  working-class  interests.  Too  often 
the  leaders  of  working-class  movements  have  encouraged 
them  to  trust  in  that  all-powerful,  dignified  institution,  the 
mother  of  parliaments,  the  House  of  Commons.  I  do  not 
deny  that  honest  and  self-sacrificing  men  have  worked  hard 
to  get  working-class  representation  in  parliament,  but  these 
honest  men  have  been  barking  up  the  wrong  tree.  We  have 
worked  twenty-five  years  to  get  our  man  returned  to  parlia- 
ment; then  he  sat  there  five  years  waiting  to  catch  the 
Speaker's  eye.  At  last  he  has  caught  it  and  made  a  speech, 
and  then  people  came  round  and  slapped  him  on  the  back, 
and  said :  "  That  was  an  excellent  speech,"  and  there  the 
matter  ended. 

Dora  B.  Montefiore's  observations  while  in  Aus- 
tralia, New  Zealand  and  South  Africa  corroborate 
Tom  Mann's  statements.  We  quote  from  her  article 


IN  AUSTRALIA,  NEW  ZEALAND     167J 
in  the  New  'Review  (of  New  York)  for  February  1^ 


There  exists  in  the  British  Colonies  of  Australia,  New 
Zealand  and  South  Africa,  so-called  political  Labor  parties, 
sent  to  parliament  by  the  trade  unions  and  the  small  capi- 
talists of  those  colonies,  whose  representatives  in  parliament 
are  a  mixture  of  trade  unionist  leaders,  lawyers,  small  shop- 
keepers, and  amateur  politicians,  who  have  failed  to  get  a 
show  in  other  and  more  wide  awake  parties.  The  pro- 
grammes of  these  various  Labor  parties  vary  in  different 
colonies. 

In  Australia,  with  its  four  and  a  half  million  inhabitants 
on  an  area  of  2,948,366  square  miles,  the  Labor  party  has  a 
prominent  clause  in  its  programme  declaring  for  a  "  White 
Australia  " ;  that  is  to  say,  that  no  colored  person  is  to  be 
allowed  to  land  or  to  seek  work  on  the  shores  of  Australia. 
.  .  .  Out  of  this  preposterous  nightmare  (the  German  and 
Japanese  peril)  it  was  not  difficult  for  the  Labor  leaders  to 
evolve  a  spirit  of  vulgar  jingoism,  which,  aided  by  the  Labor 
press,  spread  like  wildfire  over  the  Australian  colonies,  and 
enabled  the  Commonwealth  Labor  party,  once  it  obtained 
a  majority  at  the  polls  in  1910,  to  force  on  the  country  the 
passing  of  the  Defense  Scheme,  on  lines  laid  down  by  Lord 
Kitchener  during  his  visit  to  Australia  in  1909.  This  De- 
fense Scheme  provides  for  the  compulsory  military  training 
of  all  boys  in  the  Commonwealth  over  twelve  years  of  age, 
who  from  twelve  to  fourteen  are  to  be  known  as  junior 
cadets;  from  fourteen  to  eighteen  as  senior  cadets;  from 
eighteen  to  nineteen  as  recruits  in  training ;  from  nineteen  to 
twenty  as  trained  soldiers;  whilst  at  the  age  of  twenty -six 
the  trained  soldiers  would  pass  into  the  reserve. 

During  my  stay  in  Sydney  I  edited  for  five  months  the 
International  Socialist,  while  the  editor,  Harry  Holland,  was 
ill  in  the  hospital ;  and  during  that  period  the  Defense  Acts 
were  for  the  first  time  put  into  force.  I  immediately  issued 
in  the  paper  a  manifesto  to  the  conscript  boys  of  Australia, 
warning  those  of  them  who  were  proletarians  not  to  be 


THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

trapped  into  training  to  defend  a  country  that  did  not  be- 
long to  them,  but  belonged  to  the  capitalists.  I  further 
warned  them  on  no  account  to  take  the  military  oath,  the 
taking  of  which  would  remove  them  from  civil  to  military; 
jurisdiction. 

Since  the  issuing  of  our  socialist  manifesto,  and  the  sub- 
sequent agitation  carried  on  by  the  party,  thousands  of  boys, 
both  in  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  have  been  fined  and 
jailed  for  refusing  to  train  for  compulsory  military  service. 
It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the  Labor  party  now  in  power, 
if  it  cannot  make  conscript  soldiers,  will  make  criminals  of 
the  young  sons  of  the  workers. 

As  regards  the  Labor  party  and  conscription  in  South 
Africa,  the  following  facts  are  interesting:  Soon  after  my 
arrival  in  Johannesburg  in  March,  1912,  I  wrote  an  article 
which  appeared  in  the  International  Socialist  of  Sydney,  on, 
April  13th.  The  following  is  an  extract  from  it: 

Comrades  in  Australia  will  be  interested  to  hear  that  I 
had  not  been  a  week  in  Johannesburg  before  I  was  ap- 
proached by  a  member  of  the  Labor  party  with  a  request  ta 
help  him  and  others  with  an  agitation  they  were  getting  up 
against  compulsory  military  service.  The  man  was  deeply 
in  earnest,  and,  having  fought  through  more  than  one  South 
African  war,  he  knew  what  he  was  talking  about  from  the 
humanitarian  side ;  but  when  it  came  to  putting  before  him 
our  anti-militarist  propaganda  from  the  industrial  stand- 
point, it  was  very  difficult  to  make  headway  with  him,  for 
he  knew  absolutely  nothing  of  the  socialist  interpretation  of 
existing  social  conditions,  and  he  asked  for  an  explanation 
of  "  class-consciousness."  It  appeared  from  what  he  told 
me  that  the  Labor  party  in  South  Africa  was  divided  on  the 
subject  of  compulsory  military  training,  and  that  the  woman 
editor  of  the  Worker  (the  Labor  organ)  was  in  favor  of  it. 
He  had  counted  on  her  speaking  for  him  at  his  preliminary 
meeting,  but,  to  his  chagrin,  found  she  was  in  the  opposite 
camp.  He  then,  having  heard  of  my  work  in  Australia, 
came  to  me. 

The  interesting  outcome  of  this,  my  first  introduction  tqj 


IN  AUSTRALIA,  NEW  ZEALAND     169! 

the  capitalistically  befogged  state  of  the  South  African  La- 
bor party,  was  that  when  I  met  the  woman  editor  of  the 
Worker,  I  found  she  was  a  relative  of  Lord  Milner  and  had 
acted  as  his  hostess  in  social  functions  when  he  was  procon- 
sul in  South  Africa,  and  was  now  (with  the  help  of  Mr. 
Cresswell,  a  mine  manager  and  Labor  M.  P.)  running  her 
husband  for  the  South  African  Parliament,  as  another  La- 
bor representative. 

The  first  South  African  Labor  Congress  was  held 
in  Capetown  in  January,  1913.  A  resolution  was 
passed  permitting  all  Asiatics  and  colored  workers 
to  become  members  of  the  various  unions. 

The  New  Unionist  idea  is  permeating  very 
rapidly  the  Australasian  English  colonies.  Follow- 
ing the  Chicago  convention  (see  page  96),  at 
which  the  I.  W.  W.  was  launched,  the  Socialist 
Labor  Party  of  Australia  conducted  through  its 
weekly  paper  The  People  an  energetic  propaganda  for 
industrialism.  I.  W.  W.  clubs  were  organized  in 
several  industrial  centers.  The  Sydney  club  adopted 
the  1905  Preamble  (see  pages  97-98).  When  the 
Preamble,  however,  was  amended,  the  S.  L.  P.  re- 
fused to  ratify  the  amendmenta.  Many  of  its  mem- 
bers headed  by  George  Gresham  Reeve,  a  miner  who 
is  at  present  the  leader  of  the  Australia  I.  W.  W., 
seceded.  Thus  we  find  in  Australia  I.  W.  W.  cluba 
affiliated  with  the  parliamentary  I.  W.  W.  of  Detroit 
and  I.  W.  W.  locals  pledged  to  direct  action  and  affili- 
ated with  the  Chicago  I.  W.  W.  In  Australia  the 
Amalgamated  Workers  Association,  second  only  in 
numbers  to  the  conservative  Australian  Workers  Un- 
ion, admits  to  its  ranks  every  individual  and  everjj 


170  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

union  in  each  industry.  Thus  far  it  has  been  con- 
fined to  Queensland  but  its  principles  are  being  dis- 
seminated through  the  rest  of  the  continent.  It  has 
voted  to  spend  £100  a  year  for  the  purchase  of  so- 
cialist literature  to  be  distributed  among  its  members. 
The  (Melbourne)  Age  announced  last  July  that  the 
country  would  witness  in  the  near  future 

"a  big  amalgamation  of  Australian  laborers'  unions, 
•which  may  turn  its  back  on  the  labor  party,  and  refuse  to 
have  anything  to  do  with  legal  arbitration.  If  consolida- 
tion is  fully  effected  it  will  possess  a  membership  of  about 
25,000.  It  proposes  to  exercise  unlimited  power  of  ab- 
sorption, and  may  swallow  smaller  bodies,  irrespective  of 
craft  considerations. 

In  October  last  a  conference  of  representatives  of  labor- 
ers' unions  from  various  States  of  the  Commonwealth,  ar- 
rived at  a  basis  of  amalgamation,  which  was  considered  in 
many  quarters  to  be  of  a  startling  character. 

The  secretary  of  the  United  Laborers'  Union  of 
Victoria  (D.  Culliney)  stated  to  a  reporter  of  the 
(Melbourne)  Age  that  his  union  was  utterly  sick  of 
wages  boards  and  arbitration  courts.  "  There  is 
nothing,"  he  remarked,  "  to  be  gained  by  waiting  for 
boards  or  courts,  or  for  action  through  political  chan- 
nels. We  are  satisfied  with  our  own  working  basis 
of  organization,  as  we  find  we  are  only  able  to  get  as 
much  as  we  are  well  enough  organized  to  drag  from 
the  employers  by  force.  We  are  disgusted  with  craft 
unions,  and  dissatisfied  with  craft  federations,  as  they 
are  maintained  for  the  purpose  of  going  to  the  arbi- 
tration court.  They  only  serve  to  provide  a  number 
of  officials  with  the  pleasures  of  office.  Our  idea  is 
"  one  union  for  Australia."  It  is  intended  to  be  aq 


IN  AUSTRALIA,  NEW  ZEALAND     171 

organic  amalgamation,  to  contain  an  unlimited  num- 
ber of  bona  fide  workers. 

"  Are  you  in  favor  of  the  general  strike  ?  "  he  was 
asked. 

"  When  we  are  strong  enough  for  that,"  he  replied, 
1  'we  shall  be  able  to  get  all  we  want  without  it." 

Dr.  Edwin  E.  Slosson,  who  recently  returned  from 
a  trip  to  Australia,  mentioned  the  fact  that  Australian 
workers  prevented  by  law  from  going  on  strike  use 
sabotage  methods  whenever  the  awards  of  the  arbitra- 
tion boards  are  unsatisfactory  to  them,  thus  enforcing 
their  demands  after  the  case  has  apparently  been  set- 
tled. 

In  New  Zealand  the  radical  element  among  the 
workers  is  conducting  an  energetic  propaganda  in 
favor  of  the  New  Unionism.  The  arbitration  system 
has  not  given  satisfaction  to  the  workers,  hundreds  of 
whom  were  jailed  between  May  and  December,  1912, 
for  going  on  strike. 

The  New  Zealand  Federation  of  Labor  at  its  latest 
conference  adopted  the  preamble  of  the  Industrial 
Workers  of  the  World  and  made  a  provision  for  or- 
ganizing the  workers  in  industrial  departments.  A 
resolution  was  carried,  however,  according  to  which 
the  Federation  will  display  its  activity  not  only  in 
the  economic  but  in  the  political  field.  It  was  also 
resolved  that  the  candidates  to  offices  put  forth  by  the 
Federation  need  not  necessarily  belong  to  the  socialist 
party.  The  socialist  party  whose  conference  took 
place  sometime  before  that  of  the  Federation  en- 
dorsed unanimously  the  principles  of  industrial  un- 
ionism and  the  elimination  of  "  immediate  demands." 


172  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

As  a  sign  of  the  growth  of  the  I.  W.  W.  idea  in 
New  Zealand  we  note  that  Tom  H.  Marshall,  who 
was  elected  organizer  for  the  New  Zealand  Federa- 
tion of  Labor,  issued  a  statement  which  reads  in  part : 

I  have  progressed  through  various  schools  of  thought 
from  the  gutter  to  the  platform,  and  to-day  I  place  Indus- 
trial Unionism  as  the  acme  of  thought  and  perfection  of 
organization  for  the  emancipation  of  our  class  from  wage 
slavery. 

There  are  five  I.  W.  W.  locals  in  Australia,  in  Syd- 
ney, Broken  Hill,  Brisbane,  Melbourne  and  Adelaide, 
and  two  in  New  Zealand,  in  Auckland  and  Christ 
Church.  The  Auckland  local  is  publishing  a  monthly 
paper  called  The  Industrial  Unionist. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  NEW  UNIONISM  IN  OTHER  COUNTRIES 

Argentina. 

THE  socialist  party  is  divided  into  three  factions ; 
the  parliamentary  socialists,  the  Argentine  Regional 
Federation  of  Labor  and  the  Argentine  Regional  Con- 
federation of  Labor.  The  two  last-named  groups 
which  are  opposed  to  political  action  are  very  similar 
in  their  aims,  their  rivalry  being  merely  due  to  per- 
sonal friction  between  their  leaders.  The  Federation, 
and  the  Confederation  met  in  congress  last  year  and 
endeavored  to  effect  a  combination ;  after  three  days 
of  rather  violent  discussions  they  decided  to  retain, 
their  independence. 

We  quote  the  following  from  an  article  contribu- 
ted to  La  Vie  Ouvriere  for  December  5,  1912,  by  tha 
editor  of  the  only  syndicalist  paper  in  Argentina,  Leu 
Accion  O'brera: 

In  October,  1909, La  Union  General  de  Trabajadores  which 
for  years  was  under  the  influence  of  the  Socialist  party  but 
had  been  won  over  to  revolutionary  syndicalism,  organized 
a  labor  congress;  they  sent  invitations  to  the  anarchist 
unions  belonging  to  the  Federacion  Obrera  Regional  Argen- 
tina, and  to  the  independent  unions.  The  result  of  the  con- 
gress was  the  formation  of  the  Confederacion  Obrera 
Regional  Argentina  which  had  revolutionary  tendencies.  It 
jwas  attacked  at  once  by  La  Vanguardia,  organ  of  the  con- 

173 


174  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

servative  socialists,  and  by  La  Protesta,  the  anarchist  paper. 
Soon  after  the  anarchists  withdrew  from  the  Confederacion. 

Austria. 

The  New  Unionist  movement  is  very  weak  and  its 
growth  is  effectively  checked  by  the  efforts  of  the  so- 
cialist politicians.  Twice  in  the  year  1912  the  cen- 
tral direction  of  the  social  democratic  trade  unions 
called  off  strikes,  the  strike  of  the  Bohemian  and 
Moravian  miners  and  the  strike  of  the  railroad  em- 
ployes, promising  to  the  men  that  their  demands 
would  be  granted  by  parliament.  Nothing  whatever 
was  done  for  the  miners ;  four  days  before  parliament 
adjourned  the  social  democratic  deputies  introduced 
a  bill  providing  for  an  increase  in  the  salaries  of  rail- 
road men.  The  bill  was  voted  down. 

Austrian  syndicalists  are  absolutely  independent  in 
their  action  from  the  anarchist  and  socialist  groups. 
The  three  groups  refused  to  combine  in  organizing 
the  anti-war  manifestation  which  took  place  on  No- 
vember 10,  1912,  in  Vienna. 

Chile. 

The  Argentine  Regional  Confederation  of  Labor 
has  been  sending  lately  some  of  its  organizers  into 
Chile. 

In  Santiago  a  weekly  syndicalist  paper,  called  El 
Productor,  was  established  recently.  In  the  extreme 
south,  in  the  district  of  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  the 
syndicalists  have  organized  the  Magellan  Labor  Fed- 
eration which  publishes  El  Trdbajo  (Labor)  at  Punta 
Arenas.  In  the  same  city  there  is  also  another  active 


IN  OTHER  COUNTRIES 

syndicalist  paper  called  Adelante  (Forward).  The 
vermicelli  and  spaghetti  makers  of  Santiago  also  pub- 
lish a  syndicalist  paper  which  is  not  only  devoted  to 
the  interests  of  their  trade  but  is  also  engaged  in  a 
militant  educational  propaganda. 

British  Columbia. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Vancouver  Trades  and  Labor 
Council  held  in  Vancouver  last  August  the  delegate 
of  the  Painters'  Union  brought  in  the  following  reso- 
lution :  "  That  this  council  endorse  the  principle  of 
industrial  unionism,  and  that  our  delegate  to  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  be  instructed  to  vote 
accordingly.  Also  that  a  committee  be  appointed  to 
issue  a  circular  letter  to  all  central  labor  bodies  in 
Canada  and  the  United  States,  asking  them  to  take 
similar  action." 

Another  delegate  introduced  a  motion  to  the  effect 
that  the  matter  of  adopting  a  universal  working  card 
be  taken  up  by  the  delegates  with  their  respective 
unions.  The  motion  was  unanimously  carried.  Petti- 
piece  and  Campbell  asked  that  the  motion  be  made  to 
include  that  a  paid  up  card  in  any  labor  union  be  ac- 
cepted in  lieu  of  an  initiation  fee.  This  was  also 
carried. 

Denmark. 

On  his  return  from  Denmark  a  few  months  ago  Tom 
Mann  published  in  the  (London)  Syndicalist  an  arti- 
cle from  which  we  extract  the  following : 

The  population  of  Copenhagen  with  suburbs  is  500,000 
and  of  the  adult  male  population  fifty  per  cent,  are  in  the 


THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

unions,  but  great  dissatisfaction  exists  with  the  quiet, 
stodgy,  fat  officials  of  the  older  type.  Still,  the  syndicalists 
hold  to  the  view  that  the  existing  organizations  ought  to  be 
revolutionized,  and  that  the  right  way  to  do  it  is  for  them 
to  remain  members  of  the  existing  Unions,  and  to  form  also 
a  syndicalist  organization  to  enroll  any  existing  trade  union- 
ist in,  but  no  one  else.  So  that  an  engineer  carries  two 
cards,  the  old  union  card  and  the  engineers'  section  of  the 
syndicalist  union,  and  pays  cheerfully  into  both.  This  gives 
them  a  splendid  chance;  they  are  only  two  years  old,  but 
have  made  much  headway,  and  in  the  machine-workers  sec- 
tion already  they  have  twenty-five  per  cent,  of  the  old  union, 
members  as  members  of  the  syndicalist  body.  It  is  a  most 
interesting  development,  and  one  that  deserves  serious  con- 
sideration by  us  in  England,  where,  like  the  Danes,  we  have 
refused  to  sever  our  connections  with  the  old  unions.  I, 
personally  am  strongly  opposed  to  any  such  policy  of  sever- 
ance for  Britain.  There  are  many  reasons  why  we  should ' 
not,  and  as  far  as  my  knowledge  goes,  not  one  satisfactory 
reason  why  we  should ;  but  the  Danes  have  struck  on  a  most 
effective  method  of  forming  a  syndicalist  section  for  each 
trade,  but  a  man  must  show  his  union  card  of  the  existing 
union  as  a  qualification  for  joining  the  syndicalist  union. 

Subsequent  events  would  tend  to  show  that  unionists 
and  syndicalists  will  sooner  or  later  part  company. 
The  editor  of  Solidwitet  the  syndicalist  paper  was 
sentenced  to  eighty  days  in  jail  for  attacking  too 
violently  certain  conservative  trade  union  leaders.  In 
September,  1912,  the  syndicalists  held  a  conference 
in  Christiania  in  the  course  of  which  they  agreed 
upon  the  following  programmes  of  propaganda  and 
action : 

"  To  transform  trade  unions  into  industrial  unions ; 
to  conduct  a  propaganda  for  spontaneous  strikes,  boy- 
cott and  sabotage ;  to  fight  the  practice  of  strike  break- 


IN  OTHER  COUNTRIES  177 

ing  by  other  unions  and  to  demonstrate  labor  solidar- 
ity by  sympathetic  strikes,  etc." 

Finally  the  revolutionists  in  the  Danish  unions  have 
organized  a  number  of  propaganda  clubs  with  a  total 
membership  of  600  in  Copenhagen.  At  Kjoge,  Aar- 
hus  and  Kastrup  similar  groups  have  been  formed. 
All  the  groups  combined  have  about  1000  members. 
They  have  issued  a  manifesto  to  the  Danish  workers 
pointing  out  the  weakness  of  the  old  trade  organiza- 
tions which  have  become  incapable  of  directing  a 
successful  strike  against  capitalism.  They  are  ap- 
pealing to  the  Danish  workers  to  help  in  the  attempt 
to  transform  the  old  organizations  into  real  fighting 
bodies. 

Holland. 

A  congress  of  the  Revolutionary  Syndicalist  Secre- 
tariate was  held  during  the  Easter  week  of  1912.  Of 
the  eighty-two  affiliated  organizations  forty-seven 
were  represented  by  125  delegates.  The  organiza- 
tions represented  have  a  total  of  5400  members  or 
ninety  per  cent,  of  the  workers  affiliated  with  the  Sec- 
retariate. 

The  Dutch  syndicalists  are  being  attacked  by  both' 
the  anarchists  and  the  socialists;  their  propaganda, 
carried  on  mostly  through  their  bi-weekly  paper,  De 
Arbeid,  has  been  very  effective  nevertheless,  for  the 
president  of  the  congress  was  able  to  announce  that 
the  membership  of  the  organization  had  doubled  since 
the  1910  congress.  In  1910  and  1911  the  Secretari- 
ate has  spent  about  100,000  florins  or  $40,000  in 
strike  pay. 


178  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

At  a  conference  held  in  Amsterdam  on  June  25, 
1912,  the  Netherland  Cigar  and  Tobacco  Workers' 
Bund,  a  socialistic  body,  with  a  membership  of  3500 
decided  to  combine  with  the  syndicalist  Netherland 
Federation  of  Cigar  and  Tobacco  Workers,  which 
has  a  membership  of  1100. 

Japan. 

Sabotage  was  applied  by  the  Japanese  workers  in 
the  course  of  several  strikes  which  took  place  in  1912, 
the  Yokohama  dockers'  strike,  the  Nazuf  ara  electrical 
railwaymen's  strike,  the  Osaka  metal  workers'  strike, 
all  three  of  which  were  won,  and  the  Kure  naval 
workers'  strike  which  ended  in  defeat.  The  govern- 
ment has  called  upon  all  priests  to  attack  socialism 
and  syndicalism  in  the  temples  and  the  Diet  passed 
an  amendment  to  the  Factory  Act  designed  to  prevent 
"  outbreaks  of  dangerous  thought." 

Norway. 

While  there  is  no  New  Unionist  organization  in 
Norway  a  revolutionary  spirit  is  manifesting  itself 
within  the  trade  unions.  The  following  resolution 
was  passed  recently  by  Trondjem  radicals  and  later 
endorsed  by  the  revolutionary  unionists  of  Chris- 
tiania: 

"  The  present  labor  conditions  demand  that  labor  organ- 
izations rest  on  a  more  revolutionary  basis  than  formerly. 
Therefore  this  meeting  favors  the  abolition  of  time  con- 
tracts, and  recommends  the  use  of  strikes,  solidarity  strikes, 
boycott,  obstruction,  sabotage  and  cooperation." 


IN  OTHER  COUNTRIES  179i 

The  tendencies  of  the  revolutionary  group  are 
voiced  through  a  paper  DireTcte  ATction  published  since 
December  1,  1910,  in  Christiania.  The  three  union 
papers  which  are  endorsing  industrialism  have  a  circu- 
lation of  15,000. 

Sweden. 

The  New  Unionists  have  had,  since  1910,  a  strong 
organization  called  Sverige  Arbetare  Central  or  S.  A. 
C.  In  October,  1910,  the  S.  A.  C.  had  516  members ; 
on  January  1,  1912,  it  had  on  its  roll,  some  1500 
workers  belonging  to  sixty-three  locals.  The  S.  A.  C. 
publishes  a  fortnightly  paper  8yndikalisien  with  a 
circulation  of  7000  advocating  direct  action  and  in- 
dustrial organization. 

The  Swedish  syndicalists  held  a  congress  in  Obrero 
last  September.  Twenty-two  delegates,  representing 
twenty-seven  local  trades  councils,  were  present  at  the 
opening  of  the  congress.  Among  the  important 
questions  discussed  was  that  of  the  strikes  which  have 
taken  place  under  the  direction  of  the  old  central  or- 
ganizations noted  for  their  reformist  tendencies.  The 
congress  decided  to  participate  in  all  future  strikes, 
and  to  take  advantage  of  them  for  the  propaganda  of 
industrialist  ideas.  While  the  congress  decided  that 
strike  funds  were  not  the  most  important  element  in 
a  strike,  all  the  trades  councils  have  been  invited  to 
establish  strike  funds.  The  congress  decided  to  is- 
sue a  manifesto  to  the  Swedish  workers  in  favor  of  a 
shorter  workday. 

Theoretically  the  S.  A.  C.  is  non-political ;  in  prao 


180  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

tice,  however,  it  is  decidedly  anti-political  and  for  that 
reason  has  met  with  a  bitter  opposition  from  the  social 
democratic  party  of  Sweden,  which  favors  political  ac- 
tion and  the  organization  of  workers  in  craft  unions. 

Switzerland. 

While  there  is  no  New  Unionist  organization  in 
Switzerland  it  is  a  significant  fact  that  "  sabotage," 
designated  as  "  offensive  tactics  against  employers  " 
was  discussed  and  approved  at  least  in  a  milder  form 
by  the  second  congress  of  the  Federation  of  Labor 
Unions  of  Latin  Switzerland  held  at  Yverdon  in 
July,  1912.  The  following  resolutions  were  passed : 

"  The  workers  can  prepare  themselves  for  the  future 
order  only  by  not  producing  what  is  harmful  to  producers 
and  consumers.  The  workers  in  the  catering  trade  must  re- 
fuse to  adulterate  food,  printers  must  refuse  to  print  lies 
and  news  harmful  to  the  workers,  and  men  in  the  building 
trade  must  refuse  to  construct  prisons  and  tribunals." 

In  connection  with  this  it  is  interesting  to  hear  that 
a  movement  is  on  foot  among  the  Lausanne  workers  to 
refuse  to  build  the  new  federal  tribunal. 


CHAPTER  XII 


THE  "New  Unionist  groups  have  never  held  an  in- 
ternational congress  and  have  only  had  opportunities 
to  exchange  views  as  the  various  socialist  congresses. 
The  revolutionary  views  of  French  delegates,  how- 
ever, have  always  conflicted  with  the  conservative 
spirit  of  the  International  Secretariate  dominated  by 
the  German  social  democrats. 

As  early  as  1903  the  0.  G.  T.  asked  with  insistence 
that  anti-militarism,  the  general  strike  and  the  eight 
hour  day  be  discussed  at  the  Amsterdam  conference  of 
1905.  To  defeat  their  efforts,  the  invitation  to  the 
French  delegates  was,  according  to  Victor  Griffuehles 
in  L' Action  Syndicalisie,  purposely  sent  to  the  wrong 
address  and  France  was  not  represented  at  the  Am- 
sterdam  congress. 

In  January,  1900,  when  a  clash  was  expected  to 
take  place  over  the  Moroccan  question,  the  C.  G.  T. 
sent  delegates  to  Berlin  to  invite  the  German  workers 
to  organize  simultaneously  with  the  French  workers 
anti-war  manifestations.  The  unionists  of  Germany 
refused  to  do  anything  without  consulting  the  socialist 
party.  Singer  asked  the  French  delegates  whether 
their  mission  had  been  undertaken  with  the  approval 
of  the  French  socialist  party.  Upon  their  negative 

181 


182  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

answer  Singer  refused  to  consider  the  French  propo- 
sition. 

The  Christiania  conference  of  1907  didn't  exclude 
the  French  delegates  but  instructed  them  to  work  in 
accord  with  the  socialist  party. 

The  recent  progress  towards  a  truly  international 
view  of  the  workers'  situation  is  well  illustrated  by 
the  attitude  of  the  German,  French,  English  and 
Spanish  workers  at  the  time  of  the  Moroccan  crisis. 
On  July  27  and  28,  1911,  the  visit  of  French  syndi- 
calists in  Berlin  led  to  gratifying  expressions  of  in- 
ternational solidarity.  On  August  4  a  congress  was 
held  in  Paris  at  which  anti-war  addresses  were  de- 
livered by  Schmidt,  Bauer  and  Silberschmidt  for 
Germany,  Barris  and  Negre  for  Spain,  Koltheck  for 
Holland,  Tom  Mann  for  England,  Jouhaux,  Yvetot, 
Savoie,  Merrheim  and  Pericat  for  France.  On  Au- 
gust 13  a  manifestation  of  the  same  kind  took  place 
in  London  and  at  the  end  of  the  month  in  Barcelona, 
the  French  delegates  of  the  Confederation  Generale 
du  Travail  attending  both  the  London  and  the  Barce- 
lona conferences. 

The  various  New  Unionist  groups  keep  in  touch 
with  one  another  through  the  publication  of  Le  Bulle- 
tin International  du  mouvement  Syndicaliste,  edited 
by  Christian  Cornelissen,  a  well-known  sociologist. 
This  weekly  news  sheet,  published  in  Bourg  la  Reine, 
iFrance,  was  founded  in  August,  1907,  by  the  revo- 
lutionary unionists  who  attended  the  anarchist  con- 
gress held  tEe  same  year  in  Amsterdam.  Its  con- 
tents are  reproduced  every  week  by  the  following 
gapers :  La  Voix  du  Peuple,  La  Bataille  Syndical- 


KEIATIONS 

iste,  Prance ;  Die  Einigkeit,  Germany ;  'Arbeid,  Hol- 
land ;  La  Voix  du  Peuple,  Switzerland ;  The  Syndir 
calist,  London,  England;  Solidaritet,  Denmark; 
Syndikalisten,  Sweden;  Direkte  Aktion,  Norway; 
L'Internazionale,  Italy ;  Solidarity  and  the  Industrial 
Worker,  United  States;  La  Action  Obrera,  Buenos 
Ayres. 

In  March  of  this  year  (1913)  the  following  ap- 
peal was  sent  to  the  revolutionary  press  of  all  coun- 
tries: 

The  federations  of  revolutionary  trade  unions  of  the 
workers  in  the  building  trades,  of  the  metal  workers,  tobacco 
•workers,  municipal  workers,  cabinet  workers,  tailors,  and 
seamen  of  Holland,  numbering  a  total  of  11,500  members, 
have  decided  together  to  make  all  possible  efforts  towards 
the  convocation  of  an  international  congress  of  unions  of 
revolutionary  tendencies  and  thereby  to  create  an  interna- 
tional link  between  the  organizations  in  favor  of  the  tactics 
of  direct  action. 

The  International  Secretariate  of  national  trade  union  cen- 
ters which  has  its  headquarters  in  Berlin,  representing 
chiefly  unions  with  the  so-called  "modern"  or  reformist 
tendencies,  cannot  satisfy  our  desire  for  an  international 
bond,  as  all  really  revolutionary  propaganda  is  systematic- 
ally excluded. 

This  Secretariate  will  not  hear  of  a  real  revolutionary 
propaganda  and  is  opposed  to  a  truly  international  labor 
congress  where  the  delegates  of  the  trade  unions  could  meet 
personally  and  is  satisfied  with  holding  every  two  years  a 
conference  of  the  secretaries  of  the  affiliated  national  cen- 
ters which  conferences  are  held  at  the  occasion  of  a  national 
congress  of  one  or  other  center. 

These  conferences  are  occupied  with  the  discussion  of  sta- 
tistics, social  legislation,  mutual  financial  aid  among  the  dif- 


184  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

r 

ferent  countries,  etc.  Questions  of  the  general  strike,  anti- 
militarism,  etc.,  are  severely  barred.  Similar  questions  were 
at  various  occasions  brought  up  by  the  French  Confederation 
of  Labor,  which  is  affiliated  to  the  International  Secretariate, 
but  always  in  vain.  The  National  Labor  Secretariate  of 
Holland,  formerly  affiliated  to  the  International  Secretariate, 
laid  before  the  international  conference  of  secretaries  at 
Stuttgart,  1902,  a  proposal  to  convoke  an  international  con- 
gress of  trade  unions  but  this  proposal  was  only  sup- 
ported by  France  and  rejected  by  all  the  delegates  of  other 
countries,  who  considered  separate  international  trade  union 
congresses  superfluous  in  view  of  existing  international 
socialist  and  labor  congresses. 

The  French  C.  G.  T.  once  again  put  a  similar  proposal 
before  the  international  conference  of  Budapest,  1911,  but  it 
was  rejected  also  this  time  and  there  is  little  chance  of  get- 
ting the  idea  accepted  in  the  near  future. 

At  those  international  socialist  and  labor  congresses  the 
trade  unions  are  playing  only  a  secondary  part.  Besides, 
the  labor  unions  are  only  admitted  if  they  recognize  the 
necessity  of  political  action.  These  socialist  congresses  are 
dominated  by  political  parties  and  their  interests  form  the 
chief  part  of  the  discussions. 

We  revolutionary  workers  organized  in  independent 
unions,  do  not  wish  to  be  placed  under  the  tutelage  of  polit- 
ical parties.  We  wish  to  determine  ourselves  what  actions 
and  propaganda  to  adopt.  That  is  why  we  insist  on  purely 
trade  union  congresses  where  we  can  meet  directly  with  the 
organized  workers  of  all  countries.  We  do  not  want  to  be 
ordered  or  led  by  political  leaders,  we  wish  to  decide  our- 
selves what  we  consider  useful  for  the  welfare  of  the  labor- 
ing classes. 

Therefore  we  ask  you,  comrades  belonging  to  revolution- 
ary and  independent  trade  unions  to  help  us  to  arrive  at  our 
own  international  congress.  We  must  come  together  and 
consider  how  revolutionary  syndicalist  propaganda,  alone 
capable  of  emancipating  us  from  capitalist  exploitation,  can. 
be  carried  on  seriously  and  on  a  permanent  international 


INTERNATIONAL  RELATIONS       185J 

i 

basis.  Fellow  workers,  if  you  agree  with  us  that  it  is  neces- 
sary to  arrive  at  an  understanding  and  at  the  creation  of  an 
international  union  of  all  revolutionary  labor  organizations, 
bring  this  question  up  for  discussion  in  your  respective 
unions  and  let  us  know  your  opinions  on  the  following 
points  before  April  15,  1913.  We  only  wish  to  express  the 
hope  that  your  answer  will  show  the  satisfaction  with  which 
our  proposal  has  been  received,  and  that  we  may  be  able  to 
create  a  Labor  International  with  which  International  Cap- 
ital will  be  obliged  to  count. 

Question  1.  "  Is  your  organization  in  favor  of  an  inter- 
national congress  of  syndicalist  unions  to  be  held  in  the 
autumn  of  1913!" 

Question  2.  "If  so,  which  country  do  you  think  most  suit- 
able for  such  a  congress?" 

Question  3.  "  How  many  members  has  your  union!  n 

Long  live  the  international  revolutionary  organizations  of 
Labor ! 

This  appeal  has  elicited  a  ready  response  from  all 
the  New  Unionist  groups  the  world  over  and  it  is  an- 
nounced that  the  first  congress  will  be  held  at  Holborn 
Hall  in  London  from  September  27  to  October  2, 
1913. 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  NEW  UNIONISM  ON  MODEBN 
THOUGHT 

A  TIMELY  warning  appeared  recently  in  the  Inter- 
national Bulletin  above  the  signature  of  its  editor, 
Christian  Cornelissen,  a  recognized  authority  on 
every  phase  of  the  syndicalist  movement.  He  says : 

These  last  few  months  the  great  revolutionary  strikes  in 
England,  France  and  the  United  States  have  led  a  large 
number  of  persons  to  write  on  revolutionary  syndicalism. 
We  have  received  many  newspaper  and  magazine  articles 
combating  or  defending  syndicalism,  its  direct  action  tac- 
tics, the  general  strike,  sabotage,  etc.  But  we  are  astonished 
to  see  how  few  of  the  men  who  study  the  movement  have 
gone  to  its  sources,  observed  strikes,  workers'  struggles, 
or  even  read  working-class  publications.  Several  authors 
belonging  to  different  nationalities  trace  the  origin  of  the 
revolutionary  labor  movement  and  of  the  theory  of  direct 
action  to  the  influence  of  French  syndicalism,  which 
prompts  its  adversaries  to  declare  that  it  is  a  "  foreign 
product "  of  no  use  in  their  own  country.  Instead  of  study- 
ing the  French  movement  through  its  official  organ  La  Voix 
du  Peuple,  or  through  pamphlets  written  by  militant  syndi- 
calists, the  authors  of  articles  on  syndicalism  prefer  to  quote 
French  and  Italian  writers  who  are  outside  the  movement 
and  with  whom  the  French  unions  have  nothing  to  do.  A 
few  weeks  ago  there  appeared  in  the  English  press  a  series 
of  articles  by  the  socialist  deputy,  Ramsay  MacDonald,  who 
traced  the  origin  of  the  syndicalist  movement  to  the  theories 
of  Georges  Sorel  and  of  his  master,  Professor  Bergson  of 
the  Sorbonne.  In  the  International  Socialist  Review  of  Chi- 

186 


INFLUENCE  ON  MODERN  THOUGHT      187 

cago  we  find  an  article  on  "  Sabotage  and  Revolutionary 
Syndicalism"  where  the  readers  are  referred  to  the  "new 
school"  which  considers  itself  neo-Marxist,  and  to  Sorel. 
We  do  not  wish  to  insist  on  all  the  nonsense  contained  in 
those  articles.  Let  us  point  out  one  fact :  The  revolution- 
ary syndicalist  movement  in  France,  in  England,  in  the 
United  States  and  everywhere  else,  is  a  mass  movement.  It 
is  the  revolutionary  militants  of  France  who  have  created 
this  movement  from  the  experience  they  gained  in  many 
years'  struggle.  It  has  nothing  to  do  with  any  school,  old 
or  new,  with  Marxism,  neo-Marxism,  or  Bergsonism.  In 
England  and  the  United  States  it  is  the  recent  strikes  which 
have  attracted  the  world's  attention  to  this  movement  and 
to  what  preceded  the  strikes ;  it  is  not  a  new  school  of  philos- 
ophy, but  the  hard  work  of  organization  and  the  practical 
experience  of  the  masses  in  the  service  of  capitalists  and  in 
their  daily  struggle  against  exploitation. 

Not  only  have  the  unions  "  nothing  to  do  "  with 
the  various  philosophers  whom  the  press  is  wont  to 
characterize  as  "  the  prophets  of  syndicalism,"  but, 
in  the  majority  of  cases  the  workers  are  totally  un- 
familiar with  the  names  of  those  intellectual  wor- 
thies. For  the  direction  followed  by  an  economic 
movement  does  not  depend  upon  the  mental  attitude 
of  passive  observers  but  on  the  activities  of  the  mili- 
tants within  the  movement.  If  the  former  sympa- 
thize with  the  movement,  they  may,  being  more 
skilled  in  the  use  of  a  pen,  describe  it  more  accu- 
rately than  even  the  workers  engaged  in  the  struggle 
could  hope  to  do.  Their  statements  are  therefore 
worth  registering  as  historical  documents.  But  to 
search  the  works  of  a  contemporary  philosopher,  how- 
ever recondite,  to  find  a  few  sentences  in  accord  with 
the  principles  of  a  current  movement  and  establish 


THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

a  relation  of  cause  and  effect  between  them  (a  the- 
ory being  the  cause  and  syndicalism  the  effect),  is 
utterly  futile. 

Less  than  any  other  thinker's  name  should  Berg- 
son's  be  mentioned  in  connection  with  syndicalism. 
Syndicalism  is  all  "  practice,"  Bergsonism  all  "  the- 
ory." Bergsonism,  that  beautiful  dilettantism  with 
its  profound  scorn  for  facts  and  science,  its  lyrical 
strain  and  vivid  images  which,  in  spite  of  its  insist- 
ence upon  the  pragmatic  role  of  the  intellect,  never 
makes  provision  for  its  own  application  to  human  or 
social  conduct  should  under  no  circumstances  be 
dragged  into  a  discussion  of  the  New  Unionism. 

Leaving  aside  the  author  of  Creative  Evolution, 
we  may  easily  find  a  large  number  of  thinkers,  es- 
pecially in  France,  who  have  been  deeply  influenced 
by  the  syndicalist  agitation.  It  may  scarcely  be  said 
that  they  have  influenced  the  movement,  for,  in  the 
main,  they  do  not  sympathize  with  it.  Their  works, 
however,  present  some  interest  in  so  far  as  they  are 
symptomatic  of  the  "  transvaluation  of  values,"  to 
use  a  Nietzschean  expression,  brought  about,  espe- 
cially in  social  and  individual  ethics,  by  the  conflict 
between  the  ethics  of  the  arms  and  the  ethics  of  the 
brain.  Ethical  dogmatism  is  being  assailed  strenu- 
ously by  men  like  Paulhan,  Chide,  Le  Roy  or  Le 
Dantec,  none  of  whom  ever  expresses  any  sympathy 
with  the  aims  of  the  new  unionism. 

Thus  Paulhan  in  his  Ethics  of  Irony,  insists  that 
"  the  world  "  13  a  chaos,  a  dust-cloud  of  systems  in 
which  there  appear  now  and  then  more  or  less  regular 
swirls ,  society  is  another  chaos  even  less  regular  than 


INFLUENCE  ON  MODERN  THOUGHT      189! 

the  former ;  man  is  nowadays  a  stunted  being,  pulled 
hither  and  thither  by  opposite  tendencies  which  he 
cannot  harmonize.  In  view  of  those  clashes  of  blind! 
forces  which  are  the  universe  and  society,  our  only; 
salvation  consists  in  adopting  the  ethics  of  irony, 
that  is  in  refusing  to  be  the  victims  of  any  belief  in 
a  meaningless  finality. 

In  Modern  Mobilism,  Alphonse  Chide  proclaims 
the  death  of  traditional  logic  and  swears-  allegiance 
to  "  Proteus  the  true  God."  In  Law  Maxime  Le 
Roy  heralds  the  passing  away  of  the  parliamentary] 
system  and  regrets  the  stubborn  survival  of  legality, 
"  the  modern  fetish." 

Laws  will  be  superseded  in  the  future,  he  thinks, 
by  covenants  between  individuals;  instead  of  being 
enforced  by  the  tyrannical  state  they  will  be  ob- 
served as  "  directions,"  as  "  symptomatic  decisions  "' 
rendered  by  human  groups. 

It  cannot  be  said  Sorel's  writings  mirror  faithfully] 
the  present  tendencies  of  the  French  movement.  We 
find  Sorel  expressing  in  1903  reformist  views,  com- 
mending JaureV  attitude  in  the  Dreyfus  affair,  ex- 
pounding orthodox  socialist  ethics  and  exhorting  the 
workers  to  defend  the  principles  of  conventional  truth, 
justice  and  morality.  From  Jaurosism  he  transferred 
his  allegiance  to  Guesdism  which  he  later  deserted 
for  syndicalism  of  a  rather  mild  hue.  Not  only, 
did  Sorel  never  influence  the  destinies  of  the  C.  G.  T., 
but,  at  the  very  time  when  Pelloutier's  efforts 
were  bearing  fruit  and  the  anarchist  elements  intro- 
duced by  Pelloutier  were  on  the  point  of  imposing 
their  views  and  tactics  upon  the  more  conservative 


190  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

Federations  of  Unions,  Sorel  made  in  his  preface  to 
Pelloutier's  History  of  Labor  Exchanges,  a  state- 
ment which  showed  his  total  lack  of  understanding 
of  the  movement : 

"  The  Confederation  of  Labor,"  he  wrote,  "  will 
prove  an  officious  council  of  labor,  a  sort  of  academy 
of  the  proletariat  which  will  confer  with  the  Govern- 
ment as,  for  instance,  agricultural  societies  do." 

Since  1910'  Sorel  has  not  even  professed  to  be  in 
sympathy  with  the  syndicalist  movement  which,  as 
he  wrote  to  some  Italian  syndicalists,  had  not  come 
up  to  his  expectations.  In  the  same  year  Sorel,  as 
well  as  one  of  his  disciples,  Edward  Berth,  promised 
their  support  to  a  monarchist  publication  which,  by 
the  way,  has  not  yet  appeared.  A  brief  examination 
of  his  theories  concerning  the  general  strike,  violence 
and  sexual  morality  will  suffice  to  show  what  a  deep 
chasm  separates  the  least  metaphysical  of  philoso- 
phers, Sorel,  from  even  the  least  materialistic  eco- 
nomist within  the  ranks  of  the  C.  G.  T. 

Sorel's  interpretation  of  the  general  strike  is  origi- 
nal. He  has  no  patience  with  the  Utopias  a  la  Bel- 
lamy which  are  mere  endeavors  to  visualize  a  society 
of  the  future  acceptable,  at  least  ethically,  to  people  of 
our  generation.  The  authors  of  such  works  (would 
he  include  Pataud  and  Pouget?)  make  no  allowances 
for  the  modifications  of  human  mentality  under  the 
influence  of  what  Nietzsche  considered  as  one  of  the 
most  powerful  forces  modeling  our  minds,  "  better 
food,  more  space  and  more  hygienic  dwellings," 
which  even  mere  reformism  is  bound  to  give  us  grad- 
ually. That  is  wh£  Sorel  says  that  the  conception 


of  the  general  strike  should  not  be  discussed,  but  ac- 
cepted, by  the  workers  themselves  as  a  reality,  by; 
their  leaders  as  a  myth. 

General  strike,  social  revolution  are  not  concrete 
aims  but  mere  mythical  images;  such  images,  how- 
ever, hold  an  unlimited  reserve  of  motor  power,  for 
they  enable  agitators  to  keep  the  workers  in  revolt 
against  present  society  by  giving  to  their  efforts  an 
aim  which,  to  the  masses,  at  least,  is  concrete. 

The  labor  myths  of  to-day  are  very  similar  to  the 
Christian  myths  such  as  the  Coming  of  the  King- 
dom, Judgment  Day,  etc.,  a  belief  in  which  distin- 
guished Christians  from  Pagans.  The  Kingdom  of 
God  and  Judgment  Day  never  became  realities  but 
the  Christian  Church  was  founded. 

The  word  utopia  should  be  reserved,  therefore,  to 
designate  the  "  practical "  projects  of  "  constructive  " 
socialists.  Cool-headed  persons  who  cannot  believe 
that  a  "  catastrophe  "  such  as  Marx  predicted  could 
suddenly  transform  a  society  created  by  capitalists 
into  an  industrial  commonwealth,  will  not  dream 
of  Utopias  but  will  hold  labor  myths  before  the  popu- 
lace to  hasten  its  onward  march,  as  a  red  rag  is  held 
before  a  bull. 

Sorel's  Apologie  de  la  Violence  is  equally  far 
fetched.  "  The  workers  must  harass  the  capitalists 
or  else  the  capitalists  are  likely  to  become  sluggish 
and  lose  sight  of  their  interests.  This  would  in  time 
cause  the  workers  to  become  less  militant  and  to  al- 
low themselves  to  be  satisfied  by  sops  thrown  to  them 
by  democracy." 

Such  is,  to  Sorel,  the  real  aim  of  the  class  struggle. 


192          THE  NEW  UNIONISM: 

Quite  as  artificial  and  illogical  is  the  difference 
he  establishes  between  capitalistic  and  proletarian  vio- 
lence. "  Capitalistic  violence,"  he  says,  "  legalized 
by  jurists  is  implacable  to  the  defeated  and  results  in 
acts  of  savagery  the  more  frightful  in  that  they  can 
be  represented  as  being  prompted  by  virtuous  mo- 
tives. Proletarian  violence  consists  in  acts  of  war 
and  has  the  value  of  a  military  demonstration." 

More  than  any  other  syndicalist  writer  Sorel  has 
given  thought  to  sexual  ethics.  On  that  question  he 
shows  himself  a  purely  traditional  and  almost  ortho- 
dox Christian.  While  the  majority  of  radicals  hold 
the  view  (even  if  many  shrink  from  expressing  it 
publicly)  that  chastity  is  a  mythical  virtue  insisted 
upon  by  capitalistic  society  because  it  keeps  down 
the  number  of  unsupported  women,  pregnant  or  nurs- 
ing, and  of  "  fatherless  "  children,  Sorel  writes  that 
"  the  juridical  conscience  cannot  rise  to  any  height 
in  countries  where  a  respect  for  chastity  is  not  deeply 
rooted  in  the  people's  minds.  .  .  .  and  that,  the 
world  will  only  grow  more  just  in  the  measure  in 
which  it  will  grow  more  chaste." 

Somewhere  else  he  tells  us  that  if  Rousseau's  con- 
sort had  such  a  bad  influence  upon  him  it  was  be- 
cause "  she  failed  to  subdue  his  erotic  imagination." 

And  yet  Sorel  realizes  that  the  ethics  of  the  pro- 
ducers cannot  be  made  to  harmonize  with  the  ethics 
of  the  parasites.  To  the  non-producing  middle  men 
who  stand  between  consumer  and  producer  receiv- 
ing toll  from  both,  the  rules  of  ethical  warfare  no 
longer  apply  and  many  are  the  syndicalist  speakers 
who  liken  the  non-producers  to  a  disease  which  eata 


INFLUENCE  ON  MODERN  THOUGHT 

up  the  body  without  giving  anything  in  return  for 
the  waste  it  entails. 

A  physician  is  not  supposed  to  be  swayed  by  any 
consideration  of  kindness  to  bacteria  in  his  fight 
against  disease.  His  use  of  drastic  remedies  will  be 
limited  only  by  the  condition  of  the  patient's  heart 
or  other  organs.  As  Vincent  St.  John  puts  it,  in  his 
chapter  on  I.  W.  W.  methods :  "  The  tactics  used 
are  determined  solely  by  the  power  of  the  organization 
to  make  good  in  their  use.  The  question  of  right  or 
wrong  does  not  concern  us." 

This  statement  is  a  little  too  broad,  for  the  ques- 
tion of  right  and  wrong  concerns  the  producers  at  least 
in  their  mutual  intercourse.  Among  producers  the 
Golden  Rule  will  still  obtain. 

Who  are  the  producers  ?  The  query  appears  futile 
and  it  would  be  useless  to  answer  were  it  not  for 
the  extremes  to  which  a  movement  may  go  in  its  in- 
cipient, neophyte  stage.  Certain  syndicalists  give 
to  the  word  producer  a  connotation  as  narrow  as  that 
which  classical  philosophers  gave  to  the  word  creator. 
To  those,  the  only  creative  work  was  the  practice  of 
letters  and  arts.  Now  it  is  the  once  oppressed  and! 
despised  laborers  who  are  to  be  considered  as  doing 
the  only  kind  of  work  which  deserves  the  epithet  of 
creative  or  as  they  prefer  to  call  it,  productive. 

Certain  syndicalists  recognize  as  producers  only  ag- 
ricultural and  industrial  workers. 

Charles  Guyiesse  and  M.  Laurin  go  so  far  as  to 
declare  that  teachers  are  not  producers  as  they  can- 
not "  take  possession  of  the  machinery  of  their  in- 
dustry." This  manifestly  absurd  view  is  not  shared 


194  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

by  any  of  the  men  who  have  attained  positions  of 
authority  in  the  movement,  Pataud,  Pouget,  Tom 
Mann,  Haywood.  We  showed  in  Chapter  V  that  the 
leaders  of  the  C.  G.  T.  consider  literary  and  artistic 
achievement  as  one  legitimate  form  of  production. 

In  the  chapter  on  intellectuals  we  saw  that  instead 
of  threatening  to  "  set  intellectuals  to  work  with  a 
pick  and  shovel,"  the  greatest  leaders  of  the  C.  G.  T. 
proposed  to  waive  the  clause  of  the  social  covenant 
relative  to  manual  labor  in  the  case  of  intellectuals 
producing  works  of  literature  or  art  conferring  a  dis- 
tinct boon  upon  society  or  enjoying  an  indisputable 
popularity. 

Felix  Le  Dantec,  a  lecturer  at  the  Sorbonne,  whose 
name  has  never  been  mentioned  in  connection  with 
syndicalist  ethics,  has  expressed  in  more  scientific 
terms  than  any  other  writer,  not  excluding  Sorel, 
the  ethics  of  the  New  Unionism.  Sorel  took  sim- 
plified metaphysics  for  his  basis.  Le  Dantec  fear- 
lessly establishes  his  ethics  on  biology. 

Traditional  ethics,  Le  Dantec  writes,  insists  on  duties 
which  are  assumed  to  be  eternal  and  essential  while  rights 
are  only  relative  and  incidental.  A  man's  salvation  de- 
pends less  on  his  demanding  whatever  he  is  entitled  to 
than  upon  his  fulfilling  all  his  duties. 

Biological  ethics,  which  the  dominant  class  has  taught  the 
enthralled  classes  to  disregard  and"  to  despise,  cannot  coun- 
tenance that  subordination  of  rights  to  duties. 

The  multiplication  of  human  beings  on  this  earth  has 
brought  about  a  conflict  between  two  instincts,  the  pri- 
mordial instinct  of  individual  selfishness  and  the  acquired 
instinct  of  social  selfishness.  The  first  instinct  prompts  us 


to  fight  for  our  rights;  the  second  compels  us,  more  or  less 
hypocritically,  to  recognize  duties.  Rights  are  natural  j 
duties  are  metaphysical. 

Whenever  an  antagonism  arises  between  immediate  indi- 
vidual advantages  and  the  advantages  an  individual  can  de- 
rive indirectly  from  the  prosperous  condition  of  society, 
metaphysical  notions  born  from  mental  habits  struggle  in 
our  minds  with  considerations  resulting  from  another  kind 
of  selfishness.  It  is  selfishness  which  develops  in  us  the 
sentiment  of  honor  but  it  is  also  selfishness  which  perpet- 
uates in  us  habits  of  prevarication  contrary  to  honor.  The 
result  of  this  strife  and  dualism  is  the  development  of 
hypocrisy,  one  of  the  mightiest  factors  of  human  evolution. 
In  the  transmission  of  characters  which  are  not  congenital 
to  the  species,  tradition  plays  an  important  part;  tradition 
has  for  its  mam  basis  imitation  and  therefore  it  is  most  im- 
portant that  metaphysical  notions  be  taught  even  by  those 
who  are  not  absolutely  convinced  of  their  reality. 

We  do  not  hesitate  to  lie  when  such  a  course  is  profitable 
to  us  but  we  lie  surreptitiously  and  when  we  think  we  are 
safe  against  detection;  publicly  we  reprove  lying  very  se- 
verely and  scorn  those  of  our  fellow  creatures  who  allow 
themselves  to  be  called  liars. 

The  role  of  the  revolutionist  in  modern  society  consists  in 
banishing  hypocrisy  and  replacing  it  by  cynicism ;  cynicism 
is  not  more  than  the  frank  application  of  biological  truths 
to  human  conduct;  if  cynicism  prevailed  for  any  length  of 
time,  however,  hypocrisy  might  never  return  and  it  may  be 
that  no  social  system  whatever  could  endure. 

Fortunately,  whoever  becomes  the  master  to-morrow  will 
invoke  the  same  metaphysical  notions  which  were  invoked 
by  the  masters  of  yesterday:  justice  and  equality.  If  the 
victors  proclaimed  their  rule  simply  by  saying  that  they 
were  the  stronger,  we  would  be  in  a  terrible  pass.  Tradi- 
tion is  bound  to  retain  its  power  for  some  time;  we  can 
notice,  however,  a  distinct  lessening  in  the  marks  of  respect 
accorded  to  the  principles  on  which  society  rests  (at  least 


196  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

in  the  mind  of  its  individual  members)  and  this  is  a  very 
disturbing  symptom  for  those  who  are  bent  on  warding  off 
great  upheavals.  .  .  .  Parliaments,  for  instance,  have  only 
one  aim,  to  avoid  revolutions.  To  attain  that  purpose  they 
must  grant  to  individuals  or  groups  of  individuals  rights 
which  are  commensurate  with  their  power  to  inflict  harm. 

Our  present  hypocrisy  usually  conceals  this  legislative 
necessity  under  lofty  metaphysical  terms.  Parliament 
grants  to  men  what  we  say  it  is  "  equitable  "  to  grant  them ; 
the  truth  is  that  men  are  granted  what  they  would  take  by 
force  if  it  was  not  granted  to  them. 

The  interests  of  the  various  classes  being  antagonistic, 
legislators  must  always  ascertain  how  far  they  can  go  in  ac- 
cording satisfaction  to  one  class  without  bringing  about  an 
insurrection  of  the  other  classes  which  are  being  despoiled 
whenever  privileges  are  granted  to  the  former.  Majorities 
are  redoubtable  elements  and  there  is  a  temptation  to  con- 
cede everything  to  them ;  when,  however,  a  minority  becomes 
threatening,  a  slice  of  the  cake  must  be  given  it  before  it  will 
draw  in  its  claws.  This  is  the  legislator's  only  rule  of  con- 
duct; personally  he  has  no  aim  whatever;  he  does  not  pro- 
gress towards  any  definite  future;  he  but  prevents  people, 
temporarily,  from  devouring  one  another. 

The  first  time  employers  found  themselves  facing  a  strike 
they  felt  injured  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  subjective 
rights  which  they  had  created  for  themselves  as  a  conse- 
quence of  mental  habits.  The  law  whose  principal  function 
is  to  protect  property,  likened  strikers  to  common  criminals. 
Subjective  rights,  however,  amount  to  very  little  outside  of 
the  mentality  which  conceives  them,  when  objective  rights, 
antagonistic  to  them,  grow  manifestly  in  strength.  The  law 
has  then  to  be  modified.  Under  the  hackneyed  excuse  of 
Justice,  the  law  had  to  grant  to  workers  the  right  to  strike 
at  the  precise  moment  when  those  entrusted  with  the  appli- 
cation of  the  law  found  themselves  powerless  to  prevent 
strikes. 

When  we  use  the  words  "  legality  "  or  "  established  gov- 


INFLUENCE  ON  MODERN  THOUGHT 

eminent "  we  allow  ourselves  to  be  impressed  by  the  gran- 
deur of  those  terms  which  represent  only  metaphysical  con- 
ceptions. We  forget  that  every  established  government  was 
established  by  violence  and  will  remain  established  only  until 
another  act  of  violence  upsets  it.  And  those  who  are  plan- 
ning to  upset  it  will  be  criminals  until  they  carry  out  their 
plans  and  thereby  in  their  turn  acquire  a  metaphysical  halo. 
The  tendency  nowadays  is  to  discuss  the  law  and  to  evade 
it  if  it  appears  bad.  The  old  saying  "  obedience  to  law  is 
the  duty  of  all,"  has  lost  the  sacred  character  it  had  in  olden 
times.  We  obey  law  because  we  fear  the  punishment  visited 
upon  lawbreakers  and  therefore  the  only  question  is:  Are 
we  strong  enough  to  defy  the  law? 

This  last  paragraph  and  the  statement  made  else- 
where that  "  a  man's  rights  are  commensurate  with 
his  power  to  do  harm  "  accord  strangely  with  Vin- 
cent St.  John's  words  on  the  I.  W.  W.'s  tactics  and 
his  contention  that  "  nothing  will  he  conceded  by  the 
employers  except  that  which  we  have  the  power  to 
take  and  hold  by  the  strength  of  our  organization." 

A  last  quotation  from  Le  Dantec  shows  that  even 
outside  of  syndicalist  circles  the  idea  of  merit  or 
reward,  one  of  the  mainstays  of  the  idea  of  private 
property,  is  being  submitted  to  a  radical  revaluation. 

"  The  idea  of  merit  is  opposed  to  the  idea  of  equality ;  for 
the  reward  of  merit,  which  is  relative  and  temporary,  creates 
lasting  inequality.  To-day  a  soldier  may  receive  for  a  deed 
of  bravery  a  cross  of  honor  which  will  shine  on  his  breast 
even  in  his  hours  of  pusillanimity  and  cowardice.  The 
Romans,  more  matter  of  fact,  awarded  to  their  military 
heroes  a  wreath  of  foliage  which,  wilting  within  two  days, 
lasted  longer,  nevertheless,  than  the  deed  it  recompensed." 


198  THE  NEW  UNIONISM 

The  application  of  this  theory  to  the  problem  of 
private  property  and  inequality  is  obvious.  From 
the  view  that  "  property  is  theft "  we  have  evolved 
to  the  more  scientific  view  that  property  is  the  unrea- 
sonable and  lasting  compensation,  of  temporary  serv- 
ice. 


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